


The Christmas Date

by gracedkelly



Category: HP, Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Escort, F/M, Humor, Modern AU, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:29:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5307527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracedkelly/pseuds/gracedkelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now Lily Evans has done it. She's dead, her life is over. Why had she lied  about having a boyfriend? How was she going to show up at her family's Christmas dinners without one? If she arrives without a lad on her arm, she might as well admit to being pathetic and desparate enough to invent an imaginary boyfriend. </p><p>She refuses to be Petunia's laughing stock again this year, so she does what any sensible girl would do. She hires an escort to play the part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Lad For Christmas

_Hiya,_

_If you follow me on Tumblr, you might have seen the little voting contest I had going on. I had my followers on there vote which OTP I should write a Christmas fic for. However, so many people participated that I thought it'd be unfair to only write one fic after all that. As my Christmas gift to you, I'll be writing three fanfics! The longest one will be this one. It's obviously a Jily fic, and it will be 6 chapters long. In two weeks, I'll also upload the first chapter to my Dramione fic, and I'll keep uploading both this fic and that one every Sunday until Christmas. On Christmas itself I'll upload a Drarry drabble, the last two chapters of this fic and the last chapter of the Dramione fic._

_There's a little nod in the title of this fic to the movie that inspired it: The Wedding Date. If you don't know it, I highly recommend it! The Christmas Date is obviously a Modern AU, and it's written in third POV._

_For those of you who are still waiting on a new Pride and Prongs update, don't despair. I'm still figuring out where I want to go with that story, and I'll probably pick it up again as soon as I finish these little fics!_

_No disrespect meant to sex workers and escorts._

_I hope you enjoy this one, and please let me know what you think!_

_Love,_

_Kelly_

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Lad For Christmas**

Lily Evans was bloody well done for.

She was dead. Her life was over.

Why had she lied?

"So I hope that you can both make it here for Christmas, Lily. You know how much work Mum and I put into these dinners."

Her sister's voice was like a sledgehammer to the head, and Lily gripped her Samsung Galaxy tighter. She wondered if she had enough strength in her tiny hand to break it in two, and if it would make her feel better if she did.

It would definitely stop her from spouting any more lies. But, like her mother always said, in for a penny, in for a pound. "Oh, we'll be there," she said airily, as if nothing were amiss at all. As if her sister's smug voice wasn't setting her teeth on edge. "He's eager to meet the family."

"Well, he should be," Petunia laughed, and the sound was like nails on a chalkboard. Okay, maybe she was being very unfair to her sister at the moment. Lily had dug this hole herself, but she wouldn't have seen the need to lie so much if her sister and her perfect marriage had just buggered off. "He's been dating my little sister for two months, and I have yet to meet him."

"You'll meet him," Lily snapped, her merry mask finally slipping.

After having grown up with her sister, Lily knew exactly when Petunia wasn't buying what she was selling. Now was one of those times. "Of course, Lily."

Lily closed her eyes, and let her head fall forward. It hit the fridge a little harder than she had originally intended and she cursed. She rubbed the tender spot on her forehead as her sister went off on her about language and how cursing wasn't ladylike at all.

As if she gave two hoots.

"You know that we'd perfectly understand if you were still single, Lily. I mean, we're all a little bit surprised since the boys chased you in school so much," her sister said bitterly, "but I doubt that any man would have enough patience to come second to someone's work again and again. Besides it's not even that big of a deal. Thirty is still three years away, darling."

Oh, hell no. "Petunia, I'm sorry, but I've got to go," Lily lied. "Someone just rang my doorbell."

"But I didn't hear a thing," Petunia sputtered. "Lily-"

"Bye, see you in a few days." She sounded a lot happier saying goodbye to her older sister than she felt. Petunia was probably thinking she had a personality disorder now, which would fit in perfectly with her being a pathological liar. She disconnected the call quickly, before Petunia could get another word in, and glared at her fridge.

Now she didn't only figuratively have a headache from Petunia's babbling, but thanks to her short rendezvous with her refrigerator she actually had one. With a groan she laid her phone on the kitchen counter, and grabbed the magazine she had been reading. She shuffled towards her comfiest chair near the window and plopped down.

Lily Evans was actually quite proud of her cosy little apartment. It had two bedrooms, and a nice view of the Thames. She had decorated it in various shades of gold and brown, and the lit candles on nearly every flat surface gave her tiny space a warm glow. There was this candle, that she had picked up in a small store on Oxford Street last week, that smelled like a forest fire. It's supposed to smell like "a campfire in winter" according to the packaging, but Lily thought that her definition was a better metaphor for her love life.

She paid a ridiculous amount for her apartment, but as CEO of the most successful MICE agency in London, she could afford some extravagance. She was the meetings and events specialist people came to see for their business parties in London. Among her clients were huge multinational corporations, noble families and Great Britain's finest businesses. And yet her sister was still convinced that she could host the Christmas dinners better than she ever could.

Puh-lease.

Lily could pull some strings and get the prettiest venues for their annual Christmas parties, but Petunia had their parents on her side when she pointed out that Christmas is supposed to be about family. About "coming home".

So they celebrated Christmas at their parents' house every year, which was always a bother for Lily since she didn't even own a car. It wasn't like she needed one in London when she had the tube, right?

She would have to pay for a taxi to take her to Cokeworth, which was a waste of money in her opinion. She could always take the train, of course, but that would still mean that she'd have to take a taxi from the train station to her old childhood home. Anyhow, she'd have to get a cab.

All of it didn't even matter, because there was no way that Lily was going this year.

She'd lied about having a boyfriend for two months now. Just because she couldn't hear Petunia go on and on about her happy marriage with that idiot. They were so smug about their little family, and Lily's lack thereof. Dudley, their son, was an awful brat of eight. He was a spoiled little boy that complained about the amount of presents he got every year.

Lily groaned. How embarrassing. If she didn't turn up with a nice guy on her arm, her family would know that she had been desperate and pathetic enough to lie. If she didn't show up at all, they would know that she was desperate, pathetic and a coward.

She couldn't use her job as an excuse either. Lily had enough people working for her to take over the workload during the holidays, which really wasn't that much to begin with. Not many companies planned meetings, incentives, conventions or events during the Christmas holidays, which Lily had always been happy about. Christmas was the only time when Lily slacked off a little, and for the first time in five years she wasn't even excited about her four days off.

She had never felt more depressed during the merriest season of the year. Where was she going to find a date on such short notice? The twenty-fourth was only a week away, and there was no way that she would be able to find someone insane enough to come with her to Cokeworth. Bloody hell.

Who wanted to spend Christmas in that industrial town anyway? Lily had been glad to leave that place behind.

Welcome to Cokeworth. We do hope you enjoy our lovely view; the river and the large factory overlooking it make the small streets and workers' homes look adorably picturesque. Please come back soon.

Right.

Not going to happen.

She sighed, and curled up on the chair. Her head was supported by her left hand, and her legs were tucked snugly beneath her, as she mindlessly flipped through the magazine. She was about to have a bit of a meltdown, when her gaze fell on the solution.

"How I Paid For My Lover," she read, "a story by M. Miller."

An escort service, she thought as she scanned the article, would be the answer to all her troubles! No attachment, no complications, and she would show her sister that even workaholics could have romance and happiness in their lives.

So what if her family thought she worked too hard? So what if even her sister, who she loved dearly, of all people thought she was boring?

She would prove them all wrong.

A grin spread over her beautifully freckled face, as Lily's green eyes flashed with enthusiasm. She could fix this. If she could convince arrogant HR manager's that Lily's Events Agency, or LEA for short, was the only one that could incite their employees to work harder, then she could bloody well impress some escort agency enough to send their best employee to her for Christmas.

She got out of her comfy chair and marched to the kitchen table where her laptop was still softly purring. With a swipe on her mouse pad she woke it up, and surfed to Google. Time to find herself a lad for Christmas.

* * *

James cursed like a sailor when his phone rang. When all it did for him, was give him a mouth full of soapy water, he cursed again for good measure.

"Your mother would disinherit you if she heard you curse like that, mate," his best friend yelled from the living room.

James rolled his eyes as the Ghostbusters anthem kept booming through his loft. "Sirius? Can you get that?" he shouted back.

When the ringing finally stopped, he heaved a sigh of relief. He loved his parents, but they grew unnecessarily worried if he missed one of their calls. He finished shampooing his hair as quickly as he could and then rinsed himself off.

When he was fully dressed again, he left the bathroom with a cloud of steam trailing him. His hand went automatically to his hair to go through it once more, even though he had just combed and dried it.

It was a force of habit, combing his hair. He always messed it up in an afterthought straight afterwards, making combing it a useless endeavour. His hands were always somehow connected to his hair, especially when he got nervous.

His mother lovingly called it fashionable.

Sirius thought it resembled a haystack.

Awesome, was what it really was.

When he entered his living room, he found Sirius still on the phone. Sirius held up his hand to silence him, and James leaned against the doorway with crossed arms, as his best friend paced the room with a huge smirk on his handsome face. Sirius' hair was long enough to touch his shoulders, and he usually blew it out of his face when he was bored. He wore skinny jeans and a black jumper that hugged his body, over which he usually wore a worn leather jacket. He made the girls go wild, but Sirius was the kind of guy that barely noticed that stuff. He was more into messing around, playing pranks and partying. Taking things seriously was usually James' job, and he wasn't that good at it either. That's what Remus had been for during their university years. When Sirius walked to his desk and started scribbling something down, James raised an eyebrow.

What the bloody hell?

"Very well, Miss Evans. May I remind you that we ask for an advance on his arrival?"

James couldn't help but chuckle a little. Sirius sounded as if he was pitching their art project to their jury of peers again. Yep, he sounded ridiculous and overly self-important. James' chuckling increased when Sirius did his little happy dance.

He was up to no good, that one, and James couldn't wait to get involved. Who was on the other end of his mobile phone?

"That would be 50%," Sirius spoke again, sounding utterly serious even though he was fanning himself with the piece of paper he'd just written on.

James pushed himself away from the door frame, and walked towards his friend. When he tried to snatch the paper from Sirius' grasp, his friend danced out of his way gracefully.

James tilted his head to the side curiously.

"Yes. He'll be there. No, Miss Evans, thank you. It was a pleasure doing business with you. Cheers." He hung up and James grabbed the paper from his hand while he was busy with the phone.

James' eyes scanned the long, swirling letters. It was an address, a date and a time someone was supposed to be at King's Cross Station on Christmas Eve. "What's this, Padfoot?" he asked, using the childhood nickname.

It was silly, really, but Padfoot had been Sirius' stuffed dog when he was a child. When he'd seen his new brother eyeing his Prongs, a cute brown stag, James had nagged until his mother had bought one for Sirius as well. For some reason the two boys had started calling each other by their stuffed animals right after that, and it had stuck.

To their family's bafflement.

James' mother had been thrilled, of course, that James had taken an immediate liking to Sirius when his parents took him in. Sirius had been horribly abused as a toddler, and his mother had wanted to give him a second and warmer home than his former one had been. She hadn't been entirely sure if putting these two masters of mischief together had been the smartest decision in her life though. She often jokingly lamented her bad decision making during family gatherings.

But as James loved Sirius as a brother, his parents loved him as a son. Even if they had weird nicknames for each other, and had blown up the kitchen once.

"This, Prongs, is your Christmas date," Sirius laughed.

"My what, now?"

Sirius grinned like a loony on speed. "You, my friend, have just been hired to go on a date with a lovely young woman named Lily Evans."

He had been what? "What?"

Sirius clapped his hands happily, looking like a puppy who'd just received a treat. "She dialled the wrong number, and it seems like she was looking for an escort of some sorts."

"You pimped me out?" James asked loudly, which Sirius waved off immediately.

"Of course not. Ms Evans is a respectable young lady. She wouldn't pay for sex." And he knew this how? Because they were such close friends?!

"Sirius," James started slowly.

"All you have to do is be her date for a few family dinners and that's it!" James narrowed his eyes. "Oh, come on, Prongs. It'll be a laugh, and it pays handsomely as well."

"How handsomely?" James asked, hesitating. They didn't need any money, they were filthy rich, but he did wonder how expensive an escort was nowadays.

Sirius smirked devilishly. "Well, our normal rate for three days is £3.000." Our rate? Three bags for an escort? What even-

"But since it's the hols… I asked for double the pay, and she agreed! Can you believe it?"

Let's see if he got this straight. "You whored me out for £6.000 to be someone's date for three days?"

Sirius slapped him on the shoulder. "You don't come cheap, mate."

"Have you gone off the deep end?"

Sirius gave him a look. "I don't know what you mean."

"Have you lost it? Are you off your trolley?"

"Come on, this is the ultimate prank, Prongs," Sirius tried.

"You're raving mad."

"Honestly, Prongs, do it for the bragging rights," Sirius said with a grin. "We didn't even have any plans for Christmas, right? Your parents are off to see your nutty aunt in the States, and we would probably have done dinner with the lads anyway. This way you have a hot date."

"We don't even know if she's hot," James protested.

Sirius gave him a stern look. "Now is not the time to be so shallow, James Fleamont Potter. Don't hurt the poor girl's feelings."

He must be having a laugh.

Sirius waggled his eyebrows. "Come on," he coaxed. "It will be great. She'll be eating out of the palm of your hand, and don't even act as if you're not handsome enough to pull it off either."

Well, if you looked at it that way... "I usually expect my admirers to take me out to dinner before they get into my pants," he said.

"Mate, she'll be taking you out to dinner three times," Sirius smirked. "But what are you saying? That if I were hitting on you, all I'd have to do was buy you dinner?"

James shrugged. He liked food, and he firmly believed that love went through the stomach first.

"You're so cheap, James," Sirius laughed.

"I don't know if you've heard yet," James said, "but someone just offered me £6.000 to spend a few days with her."

"James Potter, Whore Extraordinaire," Sirius said with a straight face.

"Eeerhm, excuse you. We prefer to be called sex workers."

A silence fell over the large loft, before the two of them started roaring with laughter. James wasn't going to pretend that he was perfectly fine with what was going down in a few days, but he had to admit that it was a little funny.

"How did she buy it though?" James asked after they had calmed down. They were currently lounging in their large couches, that could seat over a dozen people. Sirius' leather jacket was digging in James' back, but he was too lazy to move it.

"She was embarrassed," Sirius shrugged as he stared at the ceiling. "She would have believed anything I said if I'd said it with enough conviction. She obviously wanted the conversation over and done with. She was looking for an escort called James. Just your luck, mate, that some escort is using your first name," Sirius teased.

"Well," James started, "it is a common enough name. But what are the odds that she calls someone named James, then wrong dials and ends up with me, also conveniently called James?"

Sirius sat up. "Do you think someone set you up or something?"

The boys mulled that over for a second and then shook their heads. "Nah."

James wouldn't mind looking up the website though, so he pulled Sirius off the couch and pushed him into his small office space. They both stared at his mac desktop until they found the website this Lily Evans must have found as well.

The last digit on the phone number was different from his, and all the escorts' names started with a J. John, James, Jamie, Jason, just to name a few. "Not a set up then," James said.

"Well, whoever this James is, too bad for him," Sirius said as he studied the man's pictures. He then frowned. "He's a blond."

"I could have dyed my hair," James pointed out.

"You look nothing like him," Sirius smirked.

James raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that I'm not as pretty as this piece of man candy?"

"Did you just say "man candy"?"

They both laughed again, and Sirius clapped him on the back. "Nah, mate, you're the prettiest escort in town."

"Thank you," James said politely.

"I'm almost jealous," Sirius grinned, and James scoffed. Yeah, right. "Who knows where she'll be taking you? Someone with that much money to spend on escorts, must be rich right? You might be going to some mint party, mate!"

Sirius went on and on about how insane his time with the girl was going to be, that they started looking up Cokeworth. The photo of the town didn't really inspire warm and fuzzy feelings.

"Yeah, I'm out," James said promptly, looking at the grey town on his computer screen.

* * *

Before the end of that day Sirius had convinced him that he was indeed going to do this. It would be the biggest prank they had ever managed to pull off, and maybe James was just a little curious about this mystery woman, who Facebook proved was the prettiest bird he had ever seen. Curiosity killed the cat, they say, but satisfaction brought it back to life.


	2. Raging Butterflies and Racing Hearts

_HAPPY SUNDAY, MY LOVES._

_I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews and kudos.  You guys are amazing!_

_Love,_

_Kelly_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Raging Butterflies and Racing Hearts**

Lily had changed her outfit at least six times, and she'd brought two suitcases filled to the brim with clothes. Just in case. Christopher, the taxi driver, had given her a look when she'd politely asked him if he could help her put them in the boot. They were so heavy that she was sure she'd get a hernia if she tried.

She grimaced as she remembered the red face of the tiny taxi driver as he helped her. She would never admit it, but maybe she had gone a little overboard.

They were currently on their way to King's Cross station where Lily was to pick up her date. Nervous butterflies were fluttering about in her stomach, and she prayed they wouldn't cause a stomach ache. She righted her woollen hat and put on her gorgeous black gloves.

At least the escort wouldn't notice her sweaty palms. "Please wait for me here, Christopher."

He gave her another one of his infamous looks. "Why don't you just buy a car, Lily?"

Christopher was the taxi driver Lily called every year to drive her to her parental home and pick her up again. He was one of the few cabbies that didn't mind being out of London for a few hours, and missing other opportunities to chauffeur people around town. This would be their fourth ride together and spending so much time together around the Christmas holidays did forge a bond of some kind. Lily knew all about his triplets, Marie, Louise and Sofie, and how he hated it when his wife yelled at him in French.

He was a good guy, that Christopher, and the only taxi driver she could – and would – entrust with her possessions while she paid a visit to the loo.

"I don't need a car," Lily said regretfully. She loved driving, but she would go barking mad if she had to tour through this lively metropolis. "I'll be just a moment," she promised him.

Christopher looked at her through his rear-view mirror and winked. "Sure thing, love. Go get your lad."

With a nervous breath and a little nod, she opened the door and crossed Euston Road. King's Cross station was a bustling mass today, which didn't really surprise her. It was Christmas Eve after all, and everyone had somewhere to be tonight. They were supposed to meet at the Starbucks coffee shop, which was located close to the entrance. When Lily saw no one that matched James' online description, she joined the queue. She ordered tea for Christopher, the stranger and herself. It wouldn't hurt to make a good impression, right? Besides everyone liked tea. You couldn't go wrong with tea.

She was just putting some sugar in her cup, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Lily Evans?" she heard a deep, warm voice ask her.

The moment of truth had finally arrived. With a bright, professional smile she turned around and blinked. She could feel her polished façade slipping away like grains of sand through her fingers. "Oh. You don't look at all like your picture," she told the handsome lad before her. He had messy black hair and stylish round glasses. His smile charmed her and his brown eyes were twinkling warmly, as he looked down at her.

He was tall, and towered over her petite frame. Lily had to admit that she kind of liked it.

"No, I do not."

"I thought you were a blonde," Lily pointed out, a little bit at a loss. "You are James, right?"

Good God, what if she had been so rude to a complete stranger?

Why was she being rude at all?

For Heaven's sake, Lily, get a hold of yourself.

"I dyed it, love." She very much doubted that. "I also used different pictures because I didn't want to give the male population of our beloved nation an inferiority complex."

Well, she could almost understand that. This guy would be every girl's wet dream. He was certainly hers.

Anyhow she wasn't buying it. "Are you serious?"

"No," James finally laughed. "The website's fairly new and they messed up my picture with someone else's."

She swallowed and licked her lips, and froze when his eyes flashed to follow the movement. "Eerhm. Well," she stammered, before she reminded herself that she was Lily Evans. She was a CEO of a well-known and respected company, and she never stammered during business meetings. She dominated the room, she charmed their pants off, and she wasn't entirely certain that she didn't want to see this man before her without his pants.

And wouldn't that be a lovely sight? So her charm needed to be on point.

She swallowed again, and then smiled at him. She might not buy his story completely, but she did have a date for Christmas and that was all that mattered to her right now. Even if he came vastly overpriced. "I'm sorry. How was your train ride here? From Scotland, right?"

He nodded. "I have a loft in Edinburgh."

Lily loved that city. "Lovely city," she therefore said, thrusting his teacup in his hands. "Black tea," she told him and then pointed questionably to the sugar.

He shook his head, and she grabbed a few packages for Christopher. "Oh, it is," he confirmed. "I much prefer Edinburgh over London."

"You're not Scottish though," she pointed out. Neither was the guy she'd been on the phone with. He'd been a strange one. Half the time he'd sounded like he was being strangled or something.

Still, she'd gotten what she wanted out of the conversation, and that had placated her enough to ignore the strange man.

"No," James laughed, "I'm not."

Lily finally grabbed the remaining two cups, and unleashed the full wattage of her smile on him. He looked a little dazed as he blinked at her, telling her that her charm still worked. She took the time to take him in, and approved of his fine taste. She always had a thing for men with a good sense of fashion. He wore dark pants, a jumper and a dress shirt with a tie. His long black trench coat, reached his knees.

He'd definitely made an effort, which made her a hundred percent certain that the green knee-length dress she wore would not do at all.

She would have to change her outfit again before they arrived in Cokeworth.

"Do I pass inspection?" James asked her, his head tilted to the side in delighted curiosity.

Lily refused to let it bother her that she had just been caught drooling over him. "You'll do," she said flippantly, before she took a sip from her scolding hot tea.

She tried not to let it show, but bloody hell, that was a bad decision.

Play it cool, Lily, play it cool. Your tongue's not on fire, that's just your imagination. Take it easy.

They left the Starbucks and Lily guided him to the exit. "My taxi is just across the street," she told him, and only then noticed that he was carrying a small suitcase.

It wasn't much larger than her black Chanel totebag. "Is that all you'll be taking with you?"

James looked at her curiously, before he grinned.

Good God of Christmas, she thought, he had dimples.

She turned her head away and forced herself to focus on the road ahead. She would not stumble and fall at his feet. She wasn't that big of a cliché. Not yet, at least.

"It's all that I'll be needing," James said, shrugging.

"Aha," Lily said, unconvinced. She wondered how Petunia would react if he showed up with wrinkled clothes to her fancy dinner.

Oh, man.

They hurried their way across the street, and James opened the taxi door for her. Surprised, she grinned at him in thanks and then took her place by the far window. She handed over Christopher's cup, who thanked her gratefully, and then they both turned to see how James got in behind her. He put the small case between his legs, and they sat in silence as Christopher manoeuvred his car into traffic.

"Any other stops, Lily? Or straight to your parents' house?"

Lily shook her head with a smile. "Straight to Cokeworth, please."

Christopher gave her a thumbs up, and off they were.

"I'm James," James introduced himself politely.

Christopher flashed him a smile through the rear-view mirror. "I know all about you, James."

Lily blushed, and cleared her throat. Maybe she shouldn't have spilled all her embarrassing secrets to Christopher on their way to the station. "So... There are a few things you should know about my family," she started, taking in the intrigued look on the escort's face. "My sister takes these dinners very seriously. Tonight we'll just be celebrating with the seven of us. Petunia, that's my sister, her husband, Vernon, Dudley, their son, and my parents. Tomorrow, we'll eat dinner with Vernon's sister and their parents. They're a real piece of work," she sighed, "but try not to let them bother you too much."

She forced herself to smile confidently at him, after she had taken a gentle, probing sip from her tea. "You are a lawyer, and we met through my MICE business."

"I'm sorry," James interrupted. "MICE?"

Lily ticked the term off on her fingers. "Meetings, Incentives, Congresses and Events. My company is called LEA, Lily's Events Agency. I organised an incentive for your office."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Lily said, "you went to Bath and you had a blast."

A smirk lit up his face, but Lily ploughed on mercilessly and refused to be dazzled by its brilliance. She wasn't here to make nice, after all. He didn't come cheap, and she was determined to get her money's worth out of him. "Since my assistant had fallen ill, I accompanied your group to Bath and we fell in love. It was magical."

She could see he was trying not to laugh.

Lily continued telling him all about her issues with her sister and how she needed everything to go perfectly. She told him about her parents, who after thirty years of marriage were still madly in love with each other. Lily didn't tell him that she wanted a marriage like theirs some day though.

She warned him about Dudley, the spoiled little brat, and Marge, who was just plain obnoxious and nasty. Vernon's parents were something else entirely, and she thought she'd rather tell him about those two old bats when they were already well out of London.

* * *

 

 

James Potter might have gone in over his head this time. The family Lily described sounded absolutely batty, and he wasn't sure that spending Christmas with them was the best idea. The way she talked about her sister, made it seem obvious to James that Lily adored her, but hated her a little at the same time.

The bitter smile that appeared on her face whenever she dropped her sister's name in the conversation, made him wonder even more about the history between those two.

Sirius had been right though, Lily Evans was a delight. She was stunning, charming, witty and smart. He had no idea how a woman like that was single, but he was glad she was for purely selfish reasons. He wouldn't have met this little ball of stressed delight otherwise.

Now all he had to do was try not to think of the envelope with £3,000 burning a hole through his trousers. Her antics were making that task a lot easier than he first expected.

"For pity's sake, woman," James sighed loudly, hearing Christopher laugh behind him. "You look great. Stunning, even." And she did. The green dress she wore, hugged her petite and curvy frame splendidly. She had braided her wavy, dark red hair in a complex looking knot that he didn't fully understand but marvelled at nonetheless.

He would give his right arm and his left foot to have so much as a chance with her, but he'd flushed that chance down the toilet before he even knew he wanted it. After all, which self respecting woman would date an escort?

They were in a small pub a few miles out of Cokeworth. Christopher had insisted that they stop for a moment, so he could relieve himself when Lily started messing with her outfit.

"We don't look right together at all," she moaned dramatically.

James tried not to laugh. "Why not?"

"We're not colour coordinated, and do you even know when my birthday is?"

The laugh that tore out of him, shook James' whole body, and even Christopher couldn't help but chuckle.

"What?" Lily asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm being perfectly serious here!"

"Colour coordination?" James wheezed.

Lily grabbed a beer mat and threw it at his head, which he caught with ease. It only seemed to annoy her more. "This is important to me!"

James tried to nod soberly, but whenever his eyes caught Christopher's, his chuckling fit kicked in again.

He faintly heard Lily mutter something under her breath, and when he realised that she was impatiently waiting for them to stop, he swallowed the next salvo of laughter.

"When you're quite done?" Lily inquired politely, after even Christopher's laugh had died down a bit.

James cleared his throat. "Sorry, love. You were saying?"

"My sister is a total nut when it comes to this stuff. She'll know we're not really together," Lily sighed, defeated.

"Lily," Christopher tried, "only insecure couples colour coordinate. You don't want her to think you're so uncertain about your relationship that you have to mark your territory, right?" He pointed a thumb towards James.

"He's got a point," James agreed, trying to banish the idea of Lily marking her territory from his mind. "Only two kinds of people are allowed to colour coordinate: twins and couples in their mid-life crisis."

She made a face. "You think so?"

"I do," James said confidently. "Besides, no one's going to notice me wearing brown, once they notice you in that green dress, love. You're a stunner."

Lily blushed under his appreciative gaze, and James winked at her.

"Well, that's a kind thing to say. Thank you."

And he meant it too. Lily Evans was the type of girl that reduced the rest of the world to black and grey, while she alone remained in multicolour. She took his breath away, and he'd only met her today. Okay, he'd stalked her Facebook profile a little. He had been hired by a stranger, after all. It seemed only reasonable to research whether she was the kind of woman to lock him in the basement and perform satanic rituals on his body.

She obviously wasn't, but he'd learned a lot about her.

Green was her favourite colour, and she was thinking about cutting her hair shoulder-length again.

She liked the Titanic, but hated the Notebook. When she needed some cheering, her go-to film was 50 First Dates, which surprised him because she hadn't looked like an Adam Sandler kind of girl at all. He'd almost clicked away from her profile at this point. He didn't think he could ever like anyone who appreciated Adam Sandler. He loathed the dude and his funny nose.

She liked to think things through before she acted, but was still rather impulsive. Hence her hiring an escort.

Nearly every tagged photo of her on her Facebook wall was taken in mid-laugh, and she had a wide smile melting the camera on all the others.

She was a big fan of strawberries and Florence and the Machine. He had even found a conversation where she declared she'd climb Danny Zuko, from that Grease film, like a tree in a heartbeat.

James would have felt insecure if not for the knowledge that John Travolta was well past his prime. Now, if he'd had to compete with Brad Pitt, he would have been screwed. He'd watched Troy, and that kind of magnificence just doesn't fade, now does it?

All in all, James was pretty confident that he had a grip on what kind of person Lily was. She had a bubbly personality, and she was funny, a hard worker and a family person. But the Petunia Mystery, as he had silently dubbed it, fascinated him. She seemed controlling, yes, and a bit daft, if he was being honest, but he hadn't heard anything unredeemable about the woman yet.

When the awkward silence became too much for Lily, she clapped her hands nervously. "Well, then, shall we go?"

James, who was very curious about this family that had her knickers in such a knot, nodded. He opened the door for her and Christopher, and followed them out of the small pub.

 

* * *

James had thought it weird at first that Lily's cabbie knew her by name, but the longer he remained in her presence, the more normal he thought it was. Lily just wasn't the kind of person to insist on formalities.

"Can you pick us up again the day after next?" Lily asked Christopher with a nervous grin. "Somewhere around 8 PM, would be perfect."

"Of course," Christopher said, inclining his head. "I'll be here."

Lily pushed money in his hand, and he smilingly accepted it. The driver didn't even count it, making James think that this was perfectly normal for them.

Lily gave Christopher a kiss on the cheek. "Happy Christmas," she told him with a sweet smile, and James wished he was on the receiving end of it. "Tell your wife 'hi' for me, okay?"

"Sure will," the man answered with a broad grin.

They waited for a moment as he sped away again.

Lily's parents' house looked quite nice on the outside. Tinier than the mansion James grew up in, but it looked cosy and homely. The front garden was richly decorated with all kinds of flowers, and it even had a small statue of an elderly couple reading and sitting on a bench. It was exactly how he'd imagined it.

Lily was trying to iron out imaginary wrinkles with her hands. "I can do this."

James grabbed one of her suitcases, and nearly dropped it again. Bloody hell, what was in that thing? "Are you dressing whole of Britain for the next three days?" he asked.

Lily gave him a humorous look. "Of course not. I like to be prepared, is all."

Yeah, he'd noticed that. "All right then. Ready?"

She took a deep breath and smiled shakily.

"You can do this," he whispered as he came to stand beside her on the porch. "Nothing will go wrong," he assured her. "They won't know what to think when they notice that you came home with such a stunning lad like myself on your arm." That caused her to chuckle a bit disbelievingly. "This is you proving your sister wrong. You're successful, you're clever, you're beautiful and now you have a charming new boyfriend. She's going to turn so green with jealousy, she'll resemble the Wicked Witch of the West."

"Don't talk about my sister like that," Lily said sharply, all laughter gone from her face.

Okay. He wasn't allowed to insult the sister then. Noted.

James grimaced. "Sorry. I overstepped."

Lily nodded, accepting his apology gracefully as she stared at the door in front of her as if it might eat her whole.

"All right then, love. If you're ready?"

He watched her brace herself. She took a deep breath and then she rang the doorbell.


	3. Worth Every Penny

_Thanks so much for the kudos, guys!_

_I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!_

 

### Chapter 3: Worth Every Penny

Lily smiled warmly at her parents when they opened the door for them. Her father immediately pulled her into his arms. “My darling girl,” he cried, kissing her forehead, before handing her off to her mother who hugged her just as hard.

“Lily,” she said with a smile. “We're so happy you came.”

“Of course I came,” Lily said.

“Come in, come in,” her father said, ushering them all inside their tiny hall.

Lily caught her mother eyeing James curiously, as her husband went to fetch Lily's second suitcase.

“Blimey, honey, are you planning to move back in?” her father complained as he pushed the suitcase into the house.

Lily smiled indulgently. “James asked me the same thing,” she shrugged. “Mum, Dad, this is James, my boyfriend.” She just prayed that James remembered her parents' names.

Maybe she should have quizzed him or something before she rang the doorbell.

Quizzing the escort, Lily? Really?

She was losing it, and for a girl who thought the epitome of style was to keep your head cool that was simply unacceptable. She was usually a lot better with stressful situations, but facing Petunia's scrutinisation and childhood blame sometimes got the better of her.

For someone with such an intense need to be adored, you would think Petunia would be a nicer person.

“Nice meeting you, James,” her mother said warmly, hugging him as soon as he put their suitcases down. He seemed a little bit surprised, but returned the hug almost immediately.

“The pleasure is all mine, Mrs Evans, and may I say that you have a lovely home?”

“Please,” her mother said with a delighted twinkle in her eyes, “call me Mary.”

“Mary,” James acknowledged with a nod, and Lily thought he was quite clever. Even if he hadn't remembered her mother's first name, he certainly knew it now.

“James?” her father asked rather rudely. “No last name then?”

“Dad,” Lily berated him, as her mother gave him an ugly look.

“Honestly, Mark, I can't take you anywhere.”

“I'm at home,” her father pointed out, before he turned back to James, peering at him as if he were a criminal come to steal his daughter away. “Well, lad?”

“My full name's James Fleamont Potter, sir,” James offered with a brilliant smile.

“Fleamont?” her father repeated, baffled enough that he lost grip on his tough-guy act.

“It's a proud family name,” James said calmly, unaffected by Mary's giggles.

“How extraordinary. Never heard of that name in my life,” Mark mused.

“Dad,” Lily sighed, wishing he'd just let the name go. “Don't be rude.”

Lily, unlike her father, had heard the name before. Fleamont Potter was the founder of the best hair styling products company out there. Sleekeazy Inc. was one of the biggest companies in Great Britain, with shops all over the world. Lily'd heard about a recent survey that proved that over 80% of UK citizens had at least one of their products in their home. What wasn't common knowledge though was that the CEO's first name was Fleamont. Sleekeazy Inc. was a family company that went back to the early 1800's, so Potter was a well-known name throughout England. It was, however, also a common enough name that her parents didn't make the connection. The only reason Lily had heard of Fleamont Potter, was because she'd been obsessed with planning Sleekeazy's annual Summer Ball, which was as infamous as its invitation was coveted.

She tried to school her features into a perfect poker face as knowledge and emotions ran rampant in her brain. She wondered if James had chosen this name specifically to throw them all off, or if that was his real name? But she doubted that Fleamont Potter's son would go around announcing to the world that he was in the escort business.

Very puzzling, indeed.

Mark cleared his throat and gave James an apologetic smile. “I'm sorry that I came across as a bit… aggressive. You'll see why that is when you meet my son-in-law.” He grabbed James friendly by the shoulder, and said very faintly: “I don't need a second one of those, if you know what I mean.”

James' laugh broke the tension. “I've heard all about it, sir, and I don't blame you one bit.”

They both shared a look that Lily dreaded. Her father had a knack for making awkward family dinners even more awkward, and she wondered if he'd try to rope James in the endeavour.

When she was younger, Lily had played along with her father's sassy comments, but now that she could see how much it hurt her mother to see her family biting at each other's throats, she'd stopped.

“Hush, you,” Lily's mother said. “Don't speak ill of your grandson's father, it doesn't become you. Now, Lily dear, we prepared your old room for you, if that's all right?”

Lily smiled gratefully at her. “Of course.”

Her mother leaned in close. “I'm happy for you, darling. He seems like a polite and good man,” she whispered into her youngest daughter's ear.

Lily squeezed one of her mother's hands in thanks.

“Do you need a hand with those monstrosities?” her Dad asked her fake boyfriend.

James smiled bravely. “No, thank you. I'll manage.”

Lily gave him a look. “I can carry my own suitcase,” she said.

“Not up these stairs you can't, Flower,” her Dad muttered. “How about you carry James' small, reasonably-sized suitcase, and we carry yours, eh?”

“My suitcase is perfectly bloody reasonable!”

“Language,” her mother scolded her, trying to hide her smile.

Her father was looking at her as if she were ready for the loony bin. “Lily, you're staying for three days and you brought two suitcases big enough to ship your mum to the USA in.”

“Hey,” Mary protested with a small laugh.

“Not that I would, of course,” her dad quickly said, and winked at Lily's mum.

Lily rolled her eyes. “You're overreacting,” she told them. “My suitcase isn't that heavy.” She couldn't exactly disagree on it being too big when the evidence was staring her in the face.

“Oh, really?” James challenged her.

“Yes, really!”

“You carry one of them up then,” her father grinned, enjoying himself immensely. He exchanged a conspiratory look with James. “You think you can manage that?”

Lily grabbed one of her suitcases, and gave her father a determined look.

Her mother held up her hands in surrender. “I wash my hands off this mess. I have food that needs tending before your sister arrives.” Her hand cupped Lily's cheek for a moment, before she left the small hallway through the door on Lily's right.

The hallway was still decorated with pictures from Lily and Petunia's childhood. The coat rack was still the same one that Petunia had messily painted when she was eight. The vase on the table next to the stairs, still had a tiny crack in it. Her mother refused to get rid of either, and swore that it gave her home more character.

Lily appreciated the sentiment, if she was being honest. It made the place still feel like a home, somewhere she could come back to whenever she liked. The message that she'd always have a place here, was one she treasured.

“Well then, on you go, missy,” her father said with a bright smile, making a play for her other suitcase, only to be shooed away by James.

Lily let her father go up first with James' tiny suitcase, before she followed him up. She was huffing and puffing when she wasn't even halfway the stairs.

She tried to remember all the things she'd packed, but she didn't remember putting the Big Ben in it. The blasted thing was even heavier than expected, and she regretted having poor Christopher put them in the boot by himself earlier. But she was an Evans, and she would not admit defeat.

When she finally reached the top of the stairs, red-faced and sweating like a pig, she praised the Suitcase Gods that hers had tiny wheels. “See?” she breathed heavily. “Light as a feather.”

James chortled behind her, but didn't grace that blatant lie with a response.

Her father gave her a look that told her she was full of shit. “If you say so, Flower.”

Lily tried to scowl at his back for using the nickname again in front of a stranger, but she was still panting too hard to manage it properly.

Her father led them to Lily's bedroom, and she was both relieved and embarrassed at the same time when she saw that nothing had changed at all. Posters of The Kooks, Channing Tatum and Danny Zuko hung everywhere. The tiny silver fairy lights she'd stolen from the attic when she was sixteen, still decorated the wall opposite her bed. The warm red and chocolate brown she'd painted her room in, gave her more nostalgia than the posters did.

“I'll let you get settled in,” Dad said. “Petunia's supposed to arrive in another hour or two, so take your time.” He shut the door behind him.

“Thanks, Dad,” Lily called after him, and then turned to look at James, who was taking her room in with an amused expression.

“Don't laugh,” she said, thinking about all the stupid posters decorating her walls. She really should have gotten rid of those when she moved out. She looked around the room again, and froze when her eyes fell on her king-sized bed. How could this have possibly slipped her mind?

She couldn't share a bed with him, and she couldn't exactly banish him to the couch downstairs either. Her family would know something was amiss.

James started wondering around the room, and came to a stop in front of her bookcase. She'd taken most of her books with her five years ago, and yet the case was still overflowing with literature.

To say that she was a bit of a bookworm would be the understatement of the century.

Lily's eyes started to wander over his body again. He was broad-shouldered, but lean. It looked as if he hadn't bothered to comb his hair in years, and it was even messier from behind. Somehow, the messy just-rolled-out-of-bed look worked for him. As he shrugged out of his coat, Lily couldn't help but think that it was a shame he was an escort. She didn't share, and his profession would only break her heart down the line. She'd better not go there then.

“I like your room,” James said out of the blue, turning around with his coat on his arm.

Lily, waking up from her drool fest, took it from him and hung it, with her own coat, on the small rack beside the white door. “Thank you,” she said awkwardly.

James nodded. “So… Your parents seem nice?”

“They're lovely,” Lily agreed. “A little bit weird, but they've been very supportive of me and my career. I owe them everything.” She thought about how her mother had defended her when Petunia stated that tourism was hardly a field that would make her rich.

Well, Lily might not be rich, but she loved doing what she did, and she woke up every morning with a smile on her face. She'd take that over money any day.

When she looked up, she'd somehow moved closer to James. She started wondering how it was that he was so expensive to hire. It was a strange thing to think about a man this handsome, but she had spent £6,000 on him, and now that she'd had a few days to think about it that really was a lot of money. Granted, he was handsome, intelligent, charming, and from what she'd seen so far, even a little bit mischievous and a whole lot of trouble. It seemed to her that someone must have plucked a gentleman and a troublemaker out of a magazine, put them in a mixer and, liking the result, decided to keep him.

But was he really worth that kind of money? He couldn't be that good, could he?

Apparently she'd uttered the last bit out loud and he'd heard.

James looked down at her, and smiled. It wasn't one of the smiles she'd gotten before from him. This one was warm and inviting. One corner of his mouth was tilted up, as he slowly invaded her personal space.

Lily took a few steps back until her back was against the door. Why had her father closed the door when he left? Where was he now with his stupid rule about boys and bedrooms? She swallowed when his finger started tracing her jawline and as he leaned in, her breath caught.

“Lily,” he whispered, and his eyes told her that he liked the way her name tasted on his tongue.

Her heart was rapidly increasing its hammering, and when he closed the last few inches, Lily was sure the anticipation of his kiss would be too much.

When his lips finally touched hers, it was as if every nerve ending had woken up and decided to send the electric sensations all the way down to her toes. The thrill that followed the lightening was a drug on its own. His lips teased her, caressing hers with his, but never fully kissing her.

Her eyes fell shut, as she let the sensations crash over her like a wave on the beach. She was acutely aware of the finger that was now slowly leaving her jawline behind and marking its path down her throat. She swallowed again as her breaths came in soft gasps against his lips.

When he murmured again, the words cut through her stupor faster than a flash of lightening could split a stormy sky. “I promise you that I'm worth every penny.”

Her eyes shot open and landed on his smug smirk as he slowly pulled away from her again. Good God, she thought, this kind of drug could drive any woman to the poorhouse.

* * *

 

James Potter understood Lily's dislike of her sister. The woman was insufferable. She kept prattling on and on about her “little Dudley” as if he hung the moon and stars. James could understand that any son was beautiful and an Einstein in his parents' eyes, but when he looked at Dudley Dursley the first word that came to mind wasn't 'genius'.

James wasn't proud to say that he had been somewhat of a bully himself in high school. He'd quickly grown out of it, but the idea that he'd once stolen someone's clothes and made him walk around the school in nothing but his dirty briefs until the headmaster stepped in, still made him uncomfortable and ashamed. Not one of his finest moments, to say the least.

Oh, not that the kid hadn't deserved it. He hung with all the wrong crowds and he'd once seen him draw some very nasty, hateful and racist symbols in his notebooks. The kid paid James back in kind, pulling even bigger and nastier pranks on James whenever the tit could, but that didn't mean that it excused James' horrid behaviour.

College had changed him and Sirius both. Peter and Remus had been their saving graces. Seeing Peter being bullied for no reason other than that he was short and a little bit on the bigger side of things, had set his teeth on edge.

The fact that Remus had a scar on his face hadn't made him incredibly popular with the masses either.

So the four of them had stuck together, playing pranks on everyone and doing the teachers' heads in.

The only thing this Dudley kid did was pushing people's heads down toilets. He was a fat kid with a weird hairdo and a nasty scowl.

Whenever he opened his mouth it was to nag that this or that didn't taste good, or that his chair was too squeaky. The angry glares Lily kept sending him, only seemed to amuse the kid.

What a brat.

At least Mark seemed to agree. “Dudley, if you do not stop your nagging, we'll be eating you for dinner tomorrow.”

Dudley narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth to say something, but when Mark raised a challenging eyebrow, he quickly changed his mind. Dudley averted his eyes and Mark nodded to himself, as if all was suddenly right in the world again.

“So, James,” the annoying sister said, “Lily tells me you're a lawyer?”

His parents would certainly prefer it over his career as a detective. Much too dangerous, his mother complained often when she fussed over her boys, besides hadn't they liked their art projects in school?

Well, yes. James liked drawing portraits and doodling on odd places, but he saw it more as a hobby. He wouldn't want to live off his art, which he believed wasn't even that great to begin with. Sirius disagreed, of course, but sometimes James thought he just did it to keep him on edge.

“Yes,” James said confidently. “I'm sad to say that I wouldn't be of much help in a divorce though.”

Lily kicked his leg underneath the table, and he tried not to laugh when he saw Mark's smirk.

Petunia narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean? Why would I need a divorce lawyer?”

Mark started chuckling softly, until an angry look from his wife made him turn it into a cough. “Sorry,” he wheezed, before grabbing his glass of wine and taking a hearty sip.

“My bad,” James said carelessly, as if he had meant nothing by it. The bristling of Vernon's moustache, however, told James he wasn't buying it.

James gave him a polite grin, or what he considered polite enough for the situation at hand, and nodded at Lily's mother. “Mary, you are a marvellous cook. Honestly, this is the best steak and chips I've ever had the pleasure of tasting.”

“Wait, till you eat her hot apple pie,” Mark said, rubbing his round belly with satisfaction.

“You're a lucky man,” James observed, but before Mark could reply, Petunia budded in again.

“For dinner tomorrow I'll be making my speciality. My turkey stuffing is to die for,” she said haughtily. “Isn't it so, Vernon?”

“Right you are, my dear. There's no better cook in all of Britain than my Petunia.” He loudly kissed Petunia's cheek and all James could think about was whether that unsightly moustache tickled her horribly whenever he kissed her.

The smile Petunia gave should have been charming, a happy one transformed thanks to the attention of her husband, but it just fell short. As if she was just going through the motions a little. Again, James decided that a divorce lawyer might be the best idea for them, if Petunia's grimace was anything to go by.

She had a face like slapped arse, and the neck of a horse.

She was quite a beauty that one, which James didn't understand at all. Mary, sharing several physical traits with her eldest daughter, was as lovely as falling dusk. Warm, bubbly, colourful and gorgeous. If her mother was the dusk, Lily was the dawn. She was a rising sun and had inherited warmth, beauty and the promise of cleverness from her parents. Petunia, however, was more of a starless night. She could be pretty, he supposed, if you were into that kind of darkness, but her bitter and cold personality had long since taken hold over her average appearance and crumbled it to ruins. So maybe Petunia and this Vernon character were perfect for each other after all.

James had always been like that. He could find people the most beautiful of creatures, but as soon as he found a personality trait he didn't like or if he caught them doing something he couldn't condone, their beauty dimmed almost immediately.

It was something he was working on.

“It sounds heavenly, Petunia,” Lily said with a bright smile, and James wondered how she didn't feel the tension around the table.

Mary was smiling at Dudley and trying to ask him how school was coming along, while Mark was frowning at Vernon, who clearly didn't like being frowned at and frowned right back at him. Lily was smiling enthusiastically at her sister, while her sister was eyeing him suspiciously.

James laid his arm around Lily's chair and leaned in a little. “Surely, she can't beat your mum's cooking skills, love,” he said, teasing her.

Lily blushed at his sudden attention, and James remembered how she'd felt in her bedroom earlier. He wanted another taste. “Oh, but Petunia is a great cook, d-darling,” Lily said, adorably tripping over the endearment. “My skills are next to nothing compared to hers.”

Petunia glowed at the praise. “Well,” she smirked, “some of us take great pride in our ability to provide for their families, while others would rather drown in work, Lily. It's not your fault that you don't have the time to hone your cooking.”

James frowned at that. “She's providing for her family way better than you are, I gather.” The burning, slumbering anger in his stomach, at her taking the piss out of Lily again, flared up once more. Enough was enough. “While you may be a great cook, Lily could always go out and buy food with the money she earned if I ever get disbarred. Whereas you are dependent on your husband, here.” He gave Vernon a look that should convey that he wasn't impressed at all.

“Don't,” Lily muttered under her breath.

Petunia pursed her lips, and looked to Vernon, who finally lost his staring contest to Mark.

“Now, you listen here, you worthless-”

“You will not talk like that to my guest,” Mark finally thundered, his earlier amusement gone.

“Excuse me?” Vernon asked, coming to his feet as well.

Lily groaned beside him.

James caught Mary's eye, who balled her fists before she smacked it on the table, making the empty plates shake with its impact. “Enough of this. I would like to celebrate Christmas Eve in peace, and if you can't behave,” she let her eyes wander from face to face, and James felt properly chastised when the green eyes finally left him, “you can go out to the pub and celebrate this lovely holiday like every other Brit. If I wanted to see a ping pong match, I'd turn on the telly. Have I made myself clear?”

Everyone mumbled something affirmative under their breaths, and Mark quickly took his seat again. Vernon shortly followed, looking rather purple in the face as he did so. It didn't escape James' notice that he didn't reply to Mary.

“Good,” she said and just like that Mary was her merry, motherly self again. She smiled warmly at her daughters. “I would hate for any of you to miss out on dessert.” With that Lily and James helped her clear the plates.

“I don't know if I'm afraid of your mum or in awe of her,” James whispered as they entered the tiny kitchen.

“Welcome to the family,” Lily whispered back, and gave him a smile that made spending time in this grey town with her family more than worth it. They were ushered out of the kitchen soon enough by a smiling Mary who said that she had everything under control.


	4. Awkward Conversations

_Thank you so much for all the kudos! Who's excited for Christmas???_

### Chapter 4: Awkward Conversations

“I'm going to pop in the shower real quick, all right?” James asked.

Lily nodded with a smile. “Sure thing.” She watched him grab some clothes and disappear out of her room to her family's shared bathroom. Lily closed her eyes and let herself fall back on her bed, grimacing a little at the noise that caused. She'd completely forgotten about the creaky boards.

Lily allowed herself to pity her predicament for a moment before she put on her big girl knickers. Enough of this. They were two grown ups, and they should be able to discuss sleeping arrangements without a fuss.

The couch was out, because Petunia and Vernon were sleeping there, giving their son Petunia's old bedroom. Petunia had looked pretty in her new blue dress, which Lily suspected she'd bought for the occasion. Lily understood that Vernon couldn't be that bad if her sister loved him, but sometimes she had trouble seeing why that was. Vernon Dursley wasn't nice to anyone outside his own family, and he'd always resented her to support Petunia.

It wasn't Lily's fault that she'd gotten into that expensive boarding school, and Petunia hadn't. Lily didn't ask the school to be super selective about who they accepted in their midst.

Dream a Little Dream of Me interrupted her thoughts, and Lily mindlessly got her mobile phone out of her jeans' back pocket. Without checking the caller ID, she picked up and said, “Lily.”

“Hello pet, I was wondering if you've shagged the bloke yet.”

Lily nearly choked on her laugh as she stared at her grey ceiling. “No, not yet.”

“Is there a shag plan in place? If not, would you like my assistance?” Marlene's light teasing was most welcome at the moment. “I wouldn't mind having a go myself if I'm being honest.”

“Marlene,” Lily wheezed. “You do realise that's a man and not an object?”

“What?” Marlene said innocently. “As if someone with his profession isn't used to being objectified? Puhlease. Besides, the photo you sent me hardly shows anything.”

Lily frowned. “I thought I sent you one in side profile?”

“Exactly. With all his clothes on!”

Lily laughed loudly. “You're horrible.”

“Horribly lonely is what I am. You couldn't have told your parents that you've seen the light and joined me on the bisexual spectrum of life?”

“I can't just turn bisexual,” Lily said with a grin, amused. “No matter how tempting you are. It doesn't work that way..”

“I doubt your parents know that,” Marlene said pointedly. “It would have been a lot less expensive to convince them you were dating  _me_.”

“True,” said Lily, “but then you would have to spent Christmas here every year.”

Marlene's laugh boomed through the telephone. “You know how I like messing with your sister, besides your father adores me. How's the lad handling it? Did the Monstunia eat him alive yet?”

Normally Lily would've made a weak attempt at protesting the nickname Marlene fabricated for her sister. Petunia wasn't that big of a monster, but at the mention of James, Lily forgot about the nickname. She felt warm all over as she remembered how he'd come to her defence, and a soft expression lit her face. She was used to her parents and friends coming to her aid, but she'd never had a stranger stand up for her so courageously. And it was courageous, because she'd been on Petunia's bad side, and that wasn't a safe place to be. “He's doing really well, actually.”

“Come on then, love, don't let me wait for it. I want a detailed summary.”

Lily rolled her eyes good-humouredly, before she launched her story. “Lily Evans, a nervous, beautiful redhead, rang her parents' doorbell. When she finally entered our pretty heroine's childhood home, there was a bit of witty banter going on about Lily's suitcases, which are, by the way, reasonably sized. To prove her point, Lily carried her own suitcase upstairs without a hitch, as her newly found boyfriend-”

“Hired,” Marlene interrupted.

Lily grinned. “Right, excuse me. As her hired boyfriend carried the other one.”

“How many suitcases did you bring?” Marlene asked, her voice light with amusement at Lily's expense.

“Only two. Now, do you want to hear the story or not?”

“I do,” Marlene said, “even if it looks like you're heavily editing it as you go along.”

“Oh, hush,” Lily joked, before she continued her fiction. When she came to the part where he defended her against her sister, Marlene cooed her approval. But it was only when she said that he stood up to help her mum clear the table that Marlene admitted that he sounded like a great guy.

“He's not at all how I imagined him to be like.” Lily agreed with Marlene's assessment of him being a fine lad and good human being. “He's kind, hilarious, and he doesn't act weird about the whole thing at all.”

“Why would he?” her best friend asked reasonably. “This is his job after all, I'm sure he's used to these types of situations. His mother did a wonderful job of raising him.”

Lily bit her lip. “But isn't it weird that he said his name's James Fleamont Potter?”

“Only you would remember his full name,” Marlene teased her. “But Potter is a common enough name, like you said yourself.”

“Well, yeah,” Lily drawled, unconvinced.

“Besides, maybe he has this Fleamont character as a client or something? Maybe that was the first name that popped into his head?” she offered soothingly. “It doesn't necessarily mean that he's a fraud.”

“Okay, let's say that I buy that, but there's still the whole pictures thing?” Lily wasn't dumb and things were starting to pile up suspiciously. She had been nervous and had just wanted to get things over and done with when she booked him. But what if the website wasn't legit? What if she was being pranked by some television show?

How embarrassing would it be if she showed up on an episode of  _Punk'd_  or something similar? She doubted that the CEO of Sleekeazy's inc. was a client of James'. Wasn't he in his late seventies?

“Didn't he give a reasonable explanation for the pictures?” Marlene said, sounding a little fed up. “Maybe you're just overanalysing things. Besides, which self-respecting lad would sell himself online, unless it was his job? Even if it was for a prank, no one in their right mind would do it.”

Maybe. But Lily couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

“You know what, pet?” Marlene asked, and Lily relaxed herself a smidgen. Marlene always used pet names, even with strangers, and Lily found it both soothing and cute at the same time. She wasn't keen on using endearments herself, which she'd only proven when she stumbled over the world 'darling' during dinner.

“Even though I believe that you're just afraid of your growing attraction to the sod, I will scour the internet for you. If you can just send me an email with all the info you have on him, I'll see what I can find out.”

“You would do that?” Lily asked hopefully. There was no way she would be able to research him herself with him looking over her shoulder.

“I may be a fashion designer, Lily, but I do have awesome ICT skills.”

“That you do,” Lily agreed. She crawled off the bed and walked towards her suitcases. She quickly found her laptop and fired it up. “I'll send the email in a bit.”

“Okay,” Marlene laughed. “You're such an odd weasel sometimes, but I love you anyway.”

“Why thank you, Marlene, you're always so kind,” Lily teased.

“Right. I've got to go though.”

“No problem. Thanks, Marlene. I don't know what I'd do without you,” Lily said just as James entered the bedroom.

Marlene didn't miss a beat. “You'd mindlessly lust after your hired boyfriend while driving yourself crazy with conspiracy theories.”

Lily couldn't really contradict her. “Love you.”

“You too.” The girls hung up and Lily made some quick work of sending the email. Only when she was about to hit send, did she notice the heavy silence in her bedroom.

When she looked up, she saw that James had made himself comfortable in her desk chair. He stared unabashedly at her, and Lily blushed.

She wasn't going to pretend that she'd never had any attention from guys before, but this somehow felt different. Exciting and new. “Is there something the matter?” she asked politely, not really knowing what to say otherwise.

When in doubt, stay polite.

James grinned and shook his head. His hair looked tamed, and Lily couldn't help but stare. The neat hairdo transformed him and made him look much younger. As if her stare was making him uncomfortable, his hand raked through it, messing it up again.

Lily smiled sheepishly and sent the email lest she forgot. She saw it was well past eleven already, and she did feel a little tired. Lily shut down her laptop and put it back on the desk. As soon as she came near James, Lily couldn't help but be hyperaware of his presence. The side of her body closest to him felt like it might go up in flames. Lily wanted him to bridge the distance between them, and she didn't understand her reaction to him.

Was this how all his clients felt? Or was it just her attraction, as Marlene said, to him playing her for a fool? She knew that this was his job and that he's supposed to play her emotions, but she couldn't help but wonder.

Was this electricity in the air real or was it a wishful fabrication of her imagination?

She felt his eyes rake over her body, and she took a step back quickly. She flashed him a quick grin and dashed for her clothes. “Right. I'm going to change,” she said. He didn't reply, and right now Lily was more than happy for the silence. She ran out of her bedroom as if it were on fire.

* * *

 

When Lily returned in adorable pyjamas with stags and does chasing each other, James noticed that she was a nervous mess. Her eyes kept darting to the bed he'd managed to avoid so far. James had been considering how to go about it for a while now. He knew that Lily was uncomfortable with the whole situation, and the gentlemanly thing to do would be offering to sleep on the floor.

But then again, James hadn't been behaving much like a gentleman today, now had he? He'd pretended to be an escort, he'd allowed her to pay him £3,000 in advance, and he'd been silently comparing her sister to a horse.

Not that he intended to keep the money or speak of his assessment of Petunia out loud, but it was the principle of the thing. Now that he'd met her, he was a bit ashamed that he let things get this far.

“So,” Lily started gingerly. “Would you like the bed?”

James gave her a smile and got out of the desk chair. “I do like your bed very much.”

Lily gave him a look and then gave a brisk nod. She eyed the floor and took it like a champ. “Okay.”

He grinned. He loved a girl who'd take something like that at face value and not get mad over it. “I'm just messing with you, love. I'll gladly take the floor. No worries.”

Lily blinked rapidly a few times. Her next grin blew his mind through the roof and out of this world. Somewhere in space his Lily-intoxicated brain was happily floating around and enjoying its high. Damn that girl had a gorgeous smile.

“Thank you. I'm glad you're not insisting on sharing a bed, because I wouldn't be comfortable with that.”

Honestly though, what did she think he'd do? Molest her in her sleep?

“You have a nice family,” he said instead and accepted the pillow and blankets she gave him. He watched how Lily placed one of the two duvets she got out of her closet on the floor. James dropped the rest of the blankets on top of it and threw the pillow at the end of the duvet. He'd be sleeping between the bed and the wall tonight which was fine by him. He'd still be hidden from view whenever someone entered Lily's room.

Sirius always teased him about his “gift”, and James supposed he was lucky to have it. As soon as James' eyes fell shut, he was fast asleep. He'd sleep in the most awkward positions without suffering any stiffness whatsoever. Vertical, horizontal, upside down or in the pouring, freezing rain. James had done it all.

Lily looked at him as if she was challenging him to disagree with her. “They can be a bit much, but they're great.”

James appreciated that, even though she might not be fond of all her family members, she'd still go to war for them. “You're lucky. My parents were a lot older when they had me, so they're not as active as they used to be. I can definitely tell where you got your looks from,” James teased. Her mother was still very pretty despite the lines of years past marking her face.

Lily turned around to give him a smile. “I look more like my Dad,” she admitted.

James didn't say anything. She had her Dad's face, true, but there was something in her mannerisms that he already thought were rather similar to her mother's. The way they moved, how they didn't take nonsense or no for an answer. She might have some shared looks with her father, but the way she held herself could only be credited to her mother. “Either way, you're beautiful.”

James watched the transformation before his eyes and was astonished by what he saw. At first, she'd been shocked, then pleased and soon thereafter disbelief followed. “I mean it,” James added, and, because he couldn't help it, went with a hand through his messy hair.

Lily grimaced. “Right. Well, let's be honest here,” she drawled. “I paid you to be my date, not to seduce me or whatever the hell that was. I have some boundaries, and I would like for you to respect them. I don't expect any,” she glowered when she saw James' smirk, “sexual favours from you.”

The smirk on his face froze. This whole prank business was becoming a pain in his arse. James should never have gone with it in the first place. Why did he keep listening to Sirius? One would hope he'd learned his lesson after his thirteenth birthday, when Sirius told him “va te faire foutre” meant I love you in French.

So, of course, James told his mum how much he loved her in French and was yelled at by his father for having a foul mouth in return.

Apparently, “I love you” in French could roughly be translated to “go fuck yourself” in English. What a bastard. James never ratted him out, but he was pretty sure his parents realised who'd put James up to it. In the end, Sirius felt bad enough to confess. That was always the case with the two of them. One would get the other into trouble, and the other would bear the punishment in silence until the culprit lightened the burden by sharing it.

When one went down, the other would soon tumble down after them. Graceful and dignified, of course, as they did all things.

“Point taken,” James said with a lightheartedness he wasn't feeling. He turned towards the wall and started undressing. Since it was just made clear that the woman James was so painfully and obviously interested in thought him nothing but a common whore, he knew it would be safe to sleep in his boxers. Lily wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, James knew he wasn't being fair. For all she knew, he was nothing but an escort, but James very much doubted that sex workers wouldn't be offended about this. All he'd done was compliment her, and he'd gotten a verbal arse kicking in return.

James didn't expect her to fall to her knees in gratitude or something, but immediately assuming that he wanted to have sex with her because of a compliment hurt. She probably thought he expected to get paid for it as well. Bloody hell.

He sighed and then turned around to find her gawking at him. He raised an eyebrow and considered striking a pose, but then decided against it. He wasn't that desperate.

Yet.

He laid down on his duvet and stared at the ceiling. “So what are we doing tomorrow?” he asked, because he couldn't just leave it like that. He just couldn't. He wanted her to think well of him. It would kill him if she went out with friends and told them all about the crybaby she'd hired to impress her family with.

Why did she hire him, really? She should have just let Petunia talk away. It was clear to anyone with half a brain Petunia was the one that drew the short end of the stick. All Petunia did was sit at home and spoil her husband and only child. Not that there was anything wrong with that, exactly, it was just the way she went about it that bothered him. She pretended like being a house mother was all a woman was good for, and James didn't agree. Granted, a woman should do whatever she likes, but broadcasting that was all a woman should do was taking it a bit too far.

“Tomorrow we're having dinner with Vernon's family. I thought we'd go into town and see the Christmas market?”

James hesitated and didn't dare look over as he heard the sheets on her bed rustle. “The Christmas market?”

“Yeah,” Lily said before a soft click sounded, and the whole room fell into darkness. “A Belgian family moved here last year. Their stand is amazing. Belgian waffles and chocolate, Dutch fritters,… It's bad for you, but it's so good that you don't care.”

James chuckled at her enthusiasm over food. “What the hell are fritters?”

“Deep-fried solid doughnut thingies?”

James remained silent as he tried to imagine a solid doughnut. What shape did it have? Round? Flat like a pancake? He didn't like the sound of doughnuts since he really didn't care for the taste much.

“No?” Lily laughed adorably. “We'll have to try one tomorrow then.”

They fell into silence after that as James mulled over everything he'd done and said that night. He'd been a pitiful excuse of a man, he thought. Was he going to give up that easily? Lily was the kind of girl one fought for and being a sourpuss wouldn't make her fall for him, now would it?

He needed to convince her that he was more than the image she created in her head. He was more than this fake escort. They might have only met today, but James wanted a shot at this.

And the little taste he'd had of her already, made him want more. “Lily?”

When her only reply was a soft snore, he shook his head and lay on his side. He would prove himself tomorrow, and he would make it clear that Lily wasn't a means to an end for him. This wasn't about the money, and tomorrow morning he would give the money back to her somehow.

He was ready to go to battle for her, and he was going to fucking win.


	5. The Christmas Market

_HOHOHOHO MERRY CHRISTMAS, MY DOVES._

_How have you all been? I've been having a cold from hell and have been in no state to write the last few days. That's also why I didn't post on Christmas itself; I was too sick to write. Normally I would've already finished writing this story, but unexpected circumstances kind of screwed up my entire planning._

_I do have some good news though. This story will be a few chapters longer than originally planned! So instead of the 6 chapters I initially promised, I'll probably write 10. Give or take a few._

_I hope you enjoy this chapter and that you've had a wonderful holiday. (To all of you that don't celebrate Christmas; I hope you've had a good week as well!)_

_Love,_

_Kelly_

**Chapter 5: The Christmas Market**

When Lily was a teenager she used to come to this Christmas market every day. She'd buy candy, ice skate a little and enjoy the sights and the Christmas music. Over the years, she'd come to dislike the Christmas holidays a little, but now and then 16-year-old Lily made an appearance. Like she did now as Lily dragged James through the grey streets towards the centre of the little village.

The streets were decorated with twinkling snow ornaments that hung over the streets. It wasn't much, but for a small and boring industrial town, Cokeworth tried to make it worth its citizens' time.

"This is the first time I've seen you excited about Christmas," James remarked in a bemused tone.

Lily looked over her shoulder at him and sheepishly let go of the hand she'd been holding to tug him forward. "Sorry," she said.

"No, don't be," James said with a smile she hadn't seen on his face before. It wasn't arrogant or mocking, nor was it one of his amused smirks. No, this smile was genuine and it lit his face adorably. She very much liked it. "I like the enthusiasm. So you enjoy Christmas markets?"

Lily blinked and then grinned. Looked like the smooth talking escort stayed at home today. "I love them," she gushed. "The music, the picturesque stalls and the food are just amazing. The ice rink is awesome here. It isn't that big, but they've got these small seats you can push around, and it always has a huge Christmas tree in the middle of it."

James laughed. "I've only been to a Christmas market once before because my mother bribed me."

"Your mother had to bribe you to go to a Christmas market?" Lily couldn't have looked more outraged if she tried. Did the lad have no appreciation for the merrier things in life?

James shrugged. "We usually had something better to do, and Sirius isn't that fond of Christmas."

Lily tried not to let her suspicion show. What kind of relationship did he have with his – what was his relationship with Sirius Black even called? Did an escort have a pimp? Did James make it a habit to spend his Christmas holidays with his pimp?

Lily was having serious doubts about James' serenity and casually grabbed her mobile phone. "Oh, how so?"

James didn't notice a thing since he continued talking. "He has some bad family memories. Christmas brings them all back to the surface."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lily said. Her curiosity peaked when she realised that Marlene still hadn't sent her an email back. Granted, it was a holiday for her friend as well and Lily would have to be patient. If she were smart, Lily would have done a Google search on James Fleamont Potter while he slept. Instead, she'd obsessed over her situation until he woke up.

Lily couldn't deny any more that she was attracted to James. She no longer believed that he'd manipulated her emotions, as she'd first thought last night. Lily was too careful to let her emotions be influenced and manipulated till she reached the stage of creepy fascination. No, she could only blame herself for this, but that didn't mean that she trusted him.

Lily wasn't born yesterday, and she doubted that she could ever trust someone whose profession was to wield that trust like a profitable product. Lily put herself in this tight spot, and she foolishly resented herself for it.

Because honestly? James was exactly her type. Too bad he was so full of bullshit it made him reek.

When she'd woken up around five o'clock that morning, she started analysing everything she knew about him. He had a quick wit about him that James used to talk himself out of any bad situation. Normally, Lily would have thought that to be an admirable quality, but now that she was ninety-eight percent sure that he wasn't who he said he was, she wasn't at all pleased to find that trait in James.

It didn't only make him less attractive, which was more of a blessing than a curse, but it also made her doubt every word that came out of his mouth.

What did it mean that James knew his pimp's – employer's? - family history? True, she wasn't familiar enough with the world of sex workers to know what kind of relationship was acceptable within their hierarchy. But Lily very much doubted they sat around a Christmas tree every year and held a confession circle.

For some reason, Lily didn't believe James to be the confessing and carol singing type.

Okay, scratch that last one, she thought as she gave him a doubtful look. With the right amount of alcohol, she was certain he'd sing pretty much anything. Lily visualised James as a jolly drunk and giggled.

"You okay?" James asked her with a slight tilt to his head.

Lily called herself to a stop while she quickly put her phone away. She had to stop with the internal monologues. They weren't doing anything besides driving her batty. "I'm fine," she said, making James' eyebrows shoot up.

"Okay," he drawled.

They remained silent, and Lily tried to find her earlier eagerness to storm the Christmas market again. The closer they got to the festivities, the better she felt. The Christmas carols echoing through the streets managed to lift her spirits considerably, and she looked over to James with a small apologetic smile. Lily refused to verbally apologise, but for those two percent chance that she was mistaken, she wanted to keep the day civilised. Lily had to believe that James hadn't meant any harm.

It was both a curse and a blessing to always see the good in people. Even now she couldn't help but remember the helpful manner he'd showcased yesterday. Someone who offered to clear the table for a stranger's mother couldn't possibly be malicious.

Who'd ever heard of a villain with respect for their mother? Save from Penguin, of course. If villains truly respected their parents, they wouldn't have gone evil. They would have remembered their upbringing and obeyed their parents when they urged not to kill innocents.

Maybe Lily should stop watching all those superhero TV shows and films if they made her compare James to comic villains.

"Are you ready for this?" Lily asked him, effectively steering her thoughts away from the Gotham TV show. They were only one street away from their destination now.

James gave her a confused look, and Lily could understand his perplexity. She hadn't been a nice companion this morning, and it was entirely her fault. "I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready," James said, cringing when a particularly annoying carol blasted through the different speakers, placed strategically on every street corner.

Lily grinned and nudged him in the side, trying to get the jolly fellow back in the proper mood. "I promise you'll enjoy it," she said.

"Oh, you promise do you?" he said pleasantly. "Do you care to wager on it?"

Lily hesitated. "What kind of wager?"

"What will I get if I don't enjoy myself?" James asked. "I mean, I'm willing to give this a shot, but I'd never stroll over a Christmas market on my own."

"So now you want insurance that you'll get something out of it?" Lily asked slowly.

James winked. "That's exactly it, love."

If Lily were in a nasty mood, she'd have pointed out that she was paying him to spend time with her. But since it was Christmas, and she didn't consider him a slave to her will, she let it go. Besides, Lily was a sucker for bets. She liked to watch her opponents' faces crumple as she won them.

So what if Lily was a little competitive? As far as bad character traits went, hers was pretty tame. "Well, what do you want?"

"A kiss," he said immediately.

Lily was amused. "You don't have to think about that at all, do you?"

Was he – Holy Gods of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie, was James blushing? They'd come to a standstill at the edge of the market, and Lily took a moment to consider him and his proposal.

If she won, Lily would have convinced James of the joy Christmas markets could bring, and she'd have spent her day at one. If she lost, Lily got a kiss from this dreamboat.

Either way she looked at it, Lily couldn't find a losing side to this bet. "Fine," she said. "I'm in."

She found another perk to the wager when James brightened considerably. They shook on it, and before James could pull his hand free, Lily tugged him towards the first stall. "What are you in the mood for?"

James opened his mouth, but Lily quickly interrupted him. She was now determined to make this day a success.

"Besides kissing me," she joked good-naturedly.

He pouted, and the way he looked at her made her remember how James had teased her the day before. It really wasn't that far-fetched to think that women would spend a lot of money to get that kind of treatment from their men.

"Spoilsport," he said.

"That's me." Lily winked. She was about to repeat her question when something shiny caught her eye. She tugged at his hand and hurried towards a stall on her right. Displayed on the wooden counter, between the fairy lights and Christmas ornaments, were the loveliest hair chains she'd ever seen. The lights made them glitter enticingly, and Lily wanted to bring one home with her. It could be a little Christmas present for herself. She deserved this.

"Oh wow," she breathed greedily, as her hands caressed one that resembled a fluid silver rope.

"That's pretty," James said as he looked over her shoulder.

Lily swallowed and looked up to the vendor. He was a new face that she hoped to see a lot more of in the future. His nose was red from the typical December cold, and he couldn't be much older than thirty-five in her estimation. His brown hair didn't have any grey streaks yet and his eyes, though red and tired, were kind.

"Can I help you?" he asked her with a sweet smile.

Lily beamed back at him. "How much for this one?"

He glanced at the piece she was pointing at. "A hundred-and-twenty pounds."

Lily blinked and her smile dimmed a little. She might not be wanting for money, but she couldn't afford to buy this, even if she deserved it. Lily swallowed and nodded. "Thank you," she said, feeling rather sorry for herself. Maybe, if the vendor was here again, she'd buy one next year.

She turned to look at James, who was eyeing her with a perfect poker face. "Too bad," she said in a feeble attempt to sound cheerful.

He squeezed the hand she was still holding, and Lily pretended that it didn't send shivers down her spine. This situation was out of control, and she wasn't referring to the overpriced hair jewellery either.

"Let's go. Thanks, mate," he said to the vendor, before he pulled her away from the stall. "I'd very much like to taste one of those weird doughnuts you mentioned."

"They're deep-fried," Lily explained, "and they come with powdered sugar."

* * *

James patted at his coat with a distasteful look on his face. Although he'd very much enjoyed those Dutch doughnuts, he didn't like how the sugar went everywhere. He suspected he resembled either a snowman or a cocaine addict with defect motor skills. James listened to Lily's chatter while they made their way to the ice rink.

He was pretty sure that this was going to be a pain in the arse. Literally. James Potter was a man of many skills, but ice skating wasn't one of them.

He wasn't fooling Lily either. "Don't look so gloomy," she teased. "I promise to catch you if you fall."

"Oh, Lily," James quipped, ever ready with a cheesy reply, "I've already fallen at your feet."

Lily laughed loudly and drew several stares. "You and so many others."

"Oooooh," James drawled. "Arrogant."

"Self-assured," she corrected him with a gentle nudge. "Unlike you, I may add."

James gave her a look of mock outrage. "I don't know where you got that idea from, oh beauteous petal, I'm Mr. Confident."

Lily snorted at the ridiculous nickname and successfully retaliated with one of her own. Without stuttering this time. James felt an odd mix of pride and amusement. "Oh, my handsome cherub, then the time has come to prove you deserve your self-appointed title." She'd used her CEO-voice, which made her sound important and formal. It made him wonder what it would be like to watch her dominate a room with that attitude of hers.

James chuckled at the challenge. "It's on," he said, swatting at her butt.

Lily easily jumped out of reach and stuck out her tongue. "We're not at that stage of our relationship yet."

James roared with laughter and looked at Lily as she beckoned for him to follow her with her finger. What an alluring picture, he thought, and he was sure the image of her teasing him like that would haunt his dreams.

"I must be mad," he muttered after they'd paid their entrance fee and were about to step on the ice. They'd rented their skates, and James was about to fall to his untimely death.

Lily bit her lip, and he narrowed his eyes at her. She was trying to hide her smile, but she was failing miserably. James was pretty sure Lily was only seconds away to laugh at him in his face.

So supportive that one.

Lily grabbed his arm and shook her head. "I can't believe you don't know how to ice skate."

"I can snowboard and ski like a professional." He felt the need to point that out and, despite knowing better, he puffed his chest a little.

A giggle escaped Lily, but she clamped down so fast that James wondered if it had been a hiccup instead. "You're a walking cliché," she told him and patted his arm comfortingly.

James was too focused on the ice to take the bait. He'd never gotten the hang of ice skating, and he'd quit trying after his broken wrist at the tender age of nine.

Lily took a step on the ice and gently brought him along. "It's okay," she told him. "I've got you."

A lesser man would have felt emasculated, but not James. He didn't mind that Lily took the role of protector from him, because not only did it suit her well, it put him a bit at ease. He trusted her to catch him if he fell and that was more than he trusted Sirius to do some days.

The bastard would certainly pick him up afterwards, but Sirius would have a good laugh at his expense first.

On wobbly legs, James followed Lily around the skating rink. They stuck to the sides and whenever James threatened to fall, Lily steadied him with a kind smile and some comforting words.

In the middle of the rink stood a large Christmas tree, as Lily had promised. It was decorated in red and gold, and the golden star at the top twinkled merrily.

"You're doing great," Lily encouraged him, before she followed his gaze towards the tree. They'd put sturdy-looking benches around it, which were empty. James thought it would be nice to be able to get off his feet for a moment or two.

They weren't alone on the ice rink either. Several kids were skating with their parents and their laughter reminded James that today was a day to be merry and brave.

"You wanna go for it?" she asked.

James considered it and then nodded. Yeah, he could do that. Together, they started skating towards the benches slowly, and they made it without a hitch. James bent his knees to take a seat and promptly fell flat on his arse.

Lily's laughter filled his ears as she offered him a hand. "I'm sorry," she wheezed. "But the look on your face was priceless."

James gave her a narrow-eyed glance. To hell with his earlier romanticised musings; Lily was exactly like Sirius. He grabbed a hold of the bench and, to Lily's great amusement, ignored her hand. He pulled himself up and grumbled something to himself as he went through his hair with a gloved hand. The cold wooden bench made his arse nearly freeze off, but James was happy for the reprieve.

He turned to Lily and found her raising her hand to his hair. Just before she touched it, she withdrew.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "You have some ice in your hair."

James, ever the mannered gentleman, shook his head rapidly to get it out. "Gone?" he asked.

It achieved its goal, and Lily's earlier embarrassment vanished as she grinned at him. "No."

He held his head forward so she could get it out. James felt her fingers go through his hair, and he held his breath. It had been a while since he'd been with a woman. Mainly, because James hadn't been interested in any of the girls that had been attracted to him. His job didn't really offer a lot of time off to date either, so he hadn't.

He was very much interested now though, and James was sorry when she pulled her fingers back again. When he looked up, their eyes caught, and he was pleased to see that Lily was as affected by their moment as he had been.

"There you go," she breathed.

James felt the corners of his mouth tilt. "Thanks, love."

She cleared her throat. "Right," she muttered to herself and James was smiling now.

She didn't expect anything sexual from him, his arse. Lily Evans was as much interested in him as he was in her. He opened his mouth to say something, but the moment was broken when his phone rang in the silence.

"Please," Lily said nodding to the phone he now had in his hand, "go for it."

James took the call. "Padfoot," he greeted.

"Prongs," Sirius replied, "I assume there's a reason you haven't checked in with your love manager yet?"

James snorted at that. "Because you're a shabby one," he pointed out.

"Now, now, James, don't be mean. Haven't you heard? It's Christmas."

James shook his head and saw Lily eyeing him curiously. Right, he had to watch what he said. "Merry Christmas."

"You too, mate. How is she? Spill the beans."

James wanted to gush about his time with her, and he would have if Lily hadn't been sitting right next to him. "Kind of a bad time right now."

"Ooooooh," Sirius drawled, sounding utterly fascinated, "she's with you then?"

"Yep," James replied, popping the "p" dramatically.

"Is she as pretty as her Facebook page suggests?"

"Yeah, and then some."

"Nice," Sirius said, and James could hear him smiling through the phone. "Something tells me this is going well, eh? Maybe you should make a career change."

"Yeah, not gonna happen," James said. "I'll call you later, yeah?"

"Talk to you soon, loverboy," Sirius sang into the phone.

James shook his head with a laugh and hung up the phone. Lily didn't ask him who'd called, but when he turned towards her she had a curious look on her face.

As if she was trying to figure him out, but she couldn't get a clear image of him in her head. "We should probably get back. I'm sure Vernon's family is about to arrive, and I don't want my parents to set up everything by themselves," Lily said. She got up and held out her hand to help him back on his skates.

This time, James gladly took her hand and together they skated around a mother with her crying toddler and made their way across.

On their way to Lily's parental home, James confessed to having been convinced that Christmas markets weren't all bad. Lily's following victory dance had been well worth falling on his arse for.


	6. Dream a Little Dream of Me

_Hello,_

_I'm sorry this is so late. As you may or may not know, my laptop crashed and I only recently got a new one D: I'll try to upload again on Thursday, because I'll be unavailable during the weekend!_

_I know I said I wasn't going to write smut. I know. I know. I looked away from my word document for a moment and there it was! I had nothing to do with it, I swear!_

_Hope you enjoy!_

_Love,_

_Kelly_

**Chapter 6: Dream A Little Dream of Me**

Lily was not having fun.

She'd spent the better part of the afternoon making dinner with Petunia. Her sister had enjoyed herself immensely of course. There was nothing that Petunia liked better than pretending she was a normal and highly-qualified matron. Lily lost count how often Petunia had slapped her fingers away, because apparently there was the wrong way to boil water and there was the _right_ way.

Lily didn't care. As long as the water was boiled in the end, what the hell was the problem?

The evening hadn't been much better. She'd heard from her mother that James had been spending quality time with her father and Vernon, which didn't put her at ease at all. So she fretted her way through eating the first course until James had given her a worried look. It was only when she saw how cordial her father still was with James that she realised she was freaking out over nothing. James had obviously kept his mouth shut.

The rest of the evening had been awful. James tried to be his charming self, but Marge couldn't be charmed. Vernon's parents were just as sour as their children, and Lily was at her wit's end. She told James this after they'd fled to the kitchen under the guise of getting the desserts.

James grinned at her and gently moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. "It's almost over," he pointed out.

"If I have to listen one more time to how Marge's pugs are better behaved than any of my future children could ever be, I'll murder her," Lily muttered darkly under her breath. Lily Evans' children would be bloody amazing and well-mannered, thank you very damn much.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Now she'd stooped to cussing like a dirty sailor on Christmas of all times!

James' gentle laugh cooled her down a little. It was weird how this stranger didn't feel like a stranger at all any more. For a minute, Lily allowed herself to imagine what it would feel like if she were really dating him. If the fantasy they'd created were real.

They would be an ordinary couple trying to make it through the holidays like everyone else. They'd gossip in the car ride home about Dudley being an obnoxious kid who'd trashed the sitting room because he lost at a game of cards. They'd discuss how Vernon thought he was king of the world, while all he was king of was an ego the size of London.

They'd be madly in love, of course. And even after years of dating, James' laughter would still warm Lily's belly. The mischievous twinkle in his eyes, which was so uniquely him, would still make her weak in the knees. Loving James Potter would be a sensation she'd never get used to.

What if, instead of an escort, James had a successful job as a lawyer or bank clerk? But that seemed unlikely. She couldn't imagine this playful daredevil with a job like Vernon's. Being a lawyer, however, would suit him.

Lily could see him wiping the floor with his opponents on a daily basis. He'd be the pride of the office, a bad ass who wasn't to be trifled with.

She needed to stop watching TV shows, she thought with a sad sigh as she looked away from James. It was unfair of her to want him to change. She wouldn't change professions for him.

Lily couldn't imagine James coming home from a hotel and telling her all about his day with a rich cougar.

The fiction burst like a bubble in Lily's head.

Yeah, this was so not going to happen.

So, daydreams aside, she really shouldn't turn into a pile of muddy goo whenever his deep voice trembled from the depths of his broad chest. Her belly shouldn't transform into a swarm of butterflies every time his arm accidentally brushed hers. Maybe if she thought it often enough, it would finally ring true. Because right now? She couldn't imagine anything that felt more right than standing in a homey kitchen decorated in blue shades hoping for him to kiss her.

This was getting ridiculous, and it was so unlike her that Marlene would probably be laughing hysterically if she knew. The strong-willed and clever Lily Evans stumbling around brainlessly after a lad. How the mighty had fallen.

"You look very smart," she said, changing the subject. James had dressed in the fashionable style she'd come to expect of him. He wore a grey and white Christmas sweater. Underneath the sweater he wore a black dress shirt that was vaguely visible at the collar. His pants were black, decorated only with a black belt, and his black dress shows finished the look. He could have been a cover model for the magazine Men's Fashion or something. Save for the hair. It looked like a bird's nest.

James grinned at her. "Thanks, but my outfit is nothing compared to yours."

Lily looked down and smiled gently. She'd worn a long-sleeved black dress trimmed with a little white lace. "Thank you," she replied.

The conversation died once more. Lily turned her back to him and stared out the kitchen window. It was already dark out, which wasn't surprising since it was past nine. She sighed.

James inched closer and gently pulled her chin sideways so she was facing him again. "Hey," he whispered softly.

Lily closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

"It'll be okay," he said and before she knew what was happening, he'd pulled her close and was hugging her.

Lily's breath hitched. She laid her head on his chest and, hesitantly, put her arms around him in return. "I know." Her parents had been trying to entertain Vernon's family in a civilised manner for Petunia's sake, but Lily could see that they, too, were losing patience. "I just wish life was easier, you know?"

James kissed the top of her head in reply.

Lily allowed herself a moment to appreciate the gesture before she groaned. Marge was loudly wondering if the reason it was taking so long was that they'd gone to West-Africa to buy cacao beans.

James chuckled. "I'm not surprised she's single," he said. "Imagine living with that."

He shivered theatrically and Lily laughed. "That's a horrible thing to say," she said with a wide grin.

"Nah," James joked and reluctantly let her go.

Lily handed him a plate with chocolate pudding and then grabbed the plate with the ice cream. "Do you think we'll have enough?"

"Well, if you're fast I'm sure you'll beat one of them to dessert."

Lily made a face. It was true that the Dursleys had lightning fast reflexes when it came to food. She had no idea how they managed to eat that much food and still be as loud and active as they were. This was especially true for Mary Dursley, a rather petite woman who could eat mountains of food. Lily would have been carrying food twins – instead of only one food baby as she was now – if she ate as much as Mary did. Her metabolism must be insane, Lily thought jealously, because Lily didn't believe Mary exercised much.

Lily took a deep breath and hoped she wasn't going to hell for thinking badly about her in-laws. "Ready?"

"Whenever you are, love."

She looked at James and he waggled his eyebrows at her comically. It had the desired effect of making her laugh. Lily entered the dining room again with a smile this time.

"Thank you, dear," Lily's mother said when she put down the desserts on her parents' plate, while James served the Dursleys. She caressed Lily's arms thankfully, before Lily moved on to switch places with James.

James was already seated when she was finally done and was trying to keep his poker face intact as he watched the Dursleys, save Petunia, eat their dessert.

"You've got to be kidding me," James whispered when Lily sat down.

She raised an eyebrow in question.

James merely shook his head and had seemingly decided to take the high road.

Lily was about to ask what he was on about, when she saw how her mum handed over her pudding to a hangry-looking Marge. Did she inhale her dessert? Where did it go?

Lily sighed. Her mum really was too hospitable at times. "Mum?" she asked, standing up and taking her plate with her. She put it down in front of her mother. "Do you want mine? I'm too full."

Her mother grabbed her hand and squeezed.

"You should watch your weight a little more," Petunia said approvingly, shoving her own away as well. "Chocolate's not good for anything."

"Oh, that's great. I love chocolate pudding," James said and, in a move that appeared almost practised, grabbed Petunia's discarded pudding from under Vernon's nose. Apparently, the high road wasn't James forte. His brilliant smile made Lily chuckle. He looked like a child in a sweets shop. "Thanks, Petunia. You don't mind, do you, Vernon?"

Lily sat down again and made a point of shoving her chair a little closer to James'. Her father winked at her in approval, and Lily shook her head at her hired boyfriend's childishness.

"No," Vernon finally said, sourly, "of course not."

"Good," James said and then shoved the plate Lily's way. "Enjoy, love."

Lily grinned at Petunia's incredulous face. She didn't eat from the plate though. She didn't feel like fighting with her sister for the rest of the evening, and she'd been serious about the food baby earlier on. Lily kissed James' cheek in gratitude and winked. "You're such a sweetheart, but no thank you." She didn't fancy exploding in a waterfall of chocolate and turkey, which would undoubtedly happen if she ate all that.

"Oh, well," he said wrinkling his nose at her playfully, "more for me."

She laughed and tried to focus on the conversation. Tomorrow they'd part ways, and Lily would be sad to see him go. It seemed weird to have met someone only a few days ago and not being able to imagine your life without them.

Maybe she should agree to Marlene's offer. If she had to hire an escort every time she'd be bankrupt in a few years.

"You two are adorable," her mother said suddenly.

Lily froze and looked sideways to see that she'd been absentmindedly playing with the hair at his nape. Oh God. She pulled back quickly and felt her cheeks tingle. She must resemble a tomato by now.

James grabbed her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. "Yes, she is."

Lily heard the chatter continue, but her eyes were drawn to his like a bee to honey. It was impossible to look away, and James must have felt the same way since he couldn't keep his eyes off her either. The look they exchanged turned from warm to smouldering in a matter of seconds, and Lily swallowed heavily.

She licked her lips anxiously, wondering if he'd kiss her again, and James' eyes zeroed in on them.

"Don't do that," he breathed and Lily blinked.

His words had woken her from her haze, and he smiled regretfully. "Later," he promised. He intertwined their hands and laid them on his thigh.

Lily moved uncomfortably in her seat but stilled when he squeezed her hand comfortingly again.

Later couldn't come soon enough in her opinion.

* * *

James was exhausted. He'd try to keep up with Vernon's pretentious talk about the world and his job. He had been thoroughly offended when James wasn't impressed with his desk job as junior executive in some company or other that James had already forgotten the name of.

What an arsehole. He hadn't paid attention to Petunia much and besides his obvious arrogance and misunderstanding of the world, he could only describe Vernon Dursley as an average and boring man.

There were few things about him that could be called unique and those weren't complimentary either.

James had offered to help Mark with the dishes while the women cleaned up the dining room. They'd just finished, and it was getting rather late. Petunia and Vernon had announced that they wanted an early night – after having put their son to bed, of course – so the rest of the family was forced to go to bed as well. They couldn't remain in the sitting room if Petunia and Vernon were sleeping on the couch, now could they?

Not that James minded. He swore that if he had to spend another minute with that Vernon character he'd throttle him, and James was way too pretty for prison.

So he'd better control the urge.

"What a night," Lily sighed when James finally entered her bedroom.

He murmured something affirmative as he closed the door behind him. Lily had already changed into her pyjamas and was in the process of removing her make up. He gazed at her and took a precious minute to drink her in. She was gorgeous when she was this unguarded. She chucked the make-up remover pad into the waste bin beside her desk and started tying her fiery red hair in a messy bun. The movements caused Lily's shirt to ride up a little, and James wondered if it had always been this hot in here.

The skin of her stomach and hips that he could see was creamy and shouting for his attention. He wanted to explore every inch of her skin, and he needed her out of those pyjamas _yesterday_. He took a step forward and only then realised that Lily was staring at him as if waiting for an answer.

"Sorry," he mumbled and took another step forward, his eyes devouring the confused expression on her face. Bloody hell, she was beautiful. "What was that?"

"I was wondering," Lily said hesitantly, her voice resonating within him, "if my crazy in-laws drove you loony yet."

He took another step closer to where she stood in front of her mirror and smiled wolfishly. "There are only a few things that make me lose my mind," he said hoarsely. It hurt to talk, and he knew better things for his mouth to be doing right now.

"Oh?" Lily sounded breathless, and James saw her eyes flicker to his lips.

The anticipation made his heart miss a beat when she didn't move away. This was as much of an invitation as he was going to get. "Yes," he confirmed. "Those full lips of yours for instance." His fingers caressed them for a minute before he moved on to the freckles that were now visible on her cheeks and nose. His finger followed the trail from her nose to her cheekbone. "Or the way your freckles are like a treasure map leading the way to a man's wildest fantasy." Lily's eyes had widened, and she very much resembled like one of the does on her pyjamas. Surprised because she, like the doe, was being chased. "And then there's your hair," he said, playing with a strand of hair she'd forgotten near her ear. "When you move it dances like fire." He pulled her hair free from her bun again and smiled. "But do you want to know what really drives me batty?"

Lily licked her lips again, and it took every ounce of his willpower not to catch her lower lip between his teeth. "What?" she murmured breathlessly.

"Your eyes, Lily. They are so expressive and tell me all I need to know."

"Which is what exactly?" She cocked her head to the side in curiosity. She was trying for nonchalance, James noticed, but she was failing miserably. Lily was hanging on his every word, and he knew it.

"That you're enough to drive any man insane," he whispered, and then she jumped him.

James cupped her face in his hands as if she were the most precious thing in the world, and to him she was. Right there and then, Lily Evans was all he could see. Their bodies melted together as if they had been made for this, for each other. Their lips met in a clash of innocent eagerness on Lily's part and dominant yearning on his.

Kissing Lily Evans was like coming home, James thought dazedly.

He picked her up off the floor, and Lily's legs went around his waist automatically. When he put a bit more force into the kiss, Lily gasped and he eagerly used the opportunity to let his tongue explore her mouth. He heard her groan and his heart was beating so rapidly in his chest, he was halfway convinced she'd be able to feel it. James, humble as he was, had kissed many girls before, but none came even close to her. Maybe it was because Lily had intoxicated him from the first time they met, back at King's Cross.

Maybe it was because Lily Evans had a Master degree in how-to-kill-a-guy-by-kissing-him.

Or maybe, and this seemed better worded than Lily poisoning him with her intoxicating pheromones, James had staggered towards Infatuation Ville, gotten lost along the way and ended up at True Love City.

He shouldn't have drunk that fifth glass of wine. Or the sixth, but right now James couldn't be arsed about the amount of alcohol in his blood. Slightly intoxicated or not, James would have done the exact same thing sober. Decision made, he let himself taste the red wine on Lily's tongue and groaned.

Lily pulled back for air, and James' thumb caressed her back comfortingly.

They didn't move away from each other, and their foreheads touched intimately. "Is this okay?" he asked, because he had noticed Lily drinking some wine as well.

Lily groaned and pulled at his sweater to close what little distance there was between them. James carried her backwards to where he knew the bed to be. When he felt the soft mattress against the back of his legs, he turned around and gently laid her down.

Lily was having none of that, however, and brusquely pulled him down on top of her, making him lose his balance. He fell on top of her with a loud 'oof'.

Lily's laughter was so infectious that James was soon laughing along as he tried to free himself from their tangled web of limbs. Lily pushed him down and then straddled him. The smile on her face was better than any Christmas present he could have ever gotten.

And then they were kissing again.

He felt Lily tug at his sweater, and he helped himself out of it. She then started eagerly unbuttoning his dress shirt. Her mouth followed the process closely, she licked, kissed and nibbled on the skin she exposed.

James had fisted the sheets as he stared down at what she was doing.

Oh yeah, he hadn't lied before. Lily Evans would put him in the loony bin if she kept this up.

When she'd finally undone the shirt, she tossed it aside as he'd gotten it for three quid at the flea market instead of for a couple of hundred pounds. James didn't mind as long as she kept her attention on him. He was practical like that.

She was staring at him, her hands trailing paths on his stomach and chest. He was pleased that she liked what she saw. Very, very pleased.

In a swift move with the chorus of the mattress creaking in the background, he switched their positions so he was on top now. He kissed her as if he'd been in the desert for days and she was a glass of water; greedily, hungrily. He growled when her fingers started playing with his buckle.

James grabbed her hands and put them above her head with a feral grin.

"Hey," Lily protested.

He nuzzled his nose against her. "Hey," he murmured against her lips, before he kissed her again. Lily groaned and wiggled underneath him, trying to get out of his grip. When she brushed against his erection she froze for a second and James grinned against her lips. He kissed the corner of her mouth. "My turn."

Lily's eyes were wide with anticipation and, when he released her hands, she kept them above her head. He copied her earlier actions by undoing every button on her pyjamas slowly, leisurely. He took the time to get to know her body, to get a taste for it. When he finally got it off, she was writhing on the sheets.

When she went for his buckle again, James grabbed her hands once more but didn't push them away this time. Was she sure about this?

She answered his unasked question by murmuring: "May I?"

Bloody hell, he thought breathlessly, when she undid his buckle. His eyes were on her face while she undid his zipper. It happened rather fast after that and they were both naked and squirming on the sheets in what felt like the next breath.

James was about to kiss her again when a phone rang. Dream A Little Dream didn't sound so sweet now that it was shitting all over the moment.

"Do you need to take that?" His voice sounded rough and hoarse.

Lily didn't so much as glance at her phone. "Fuck no," she said, before she bridged the last inch between them.


	7. Reality Check

_Hello,_

_So this last month has been horrible? I got hospitalised (nothing too serious, don't fret), my laptop had to be replaced, my wuse went on a holiday with George R.R. Martin's muse and now it's February and I'm still writing a Christmas fic. This is getting ridiculous :')_

_Anyway, I wanna thank the few of you that reviewed. You guys reminded me that there are still readers out there waiting for me to get my ass in gear and write!_

_This one's for you!_

_Love,_

_Kelly_

_P.S.: I in no way condone drinking yourself into a stupor and please keep in mind that these characters are well in their twenties. Be smart._

* * *

**Chapter 7: Reality Check**

Lily Evans woke that morning to the buzzing of her phone. Sometime last night she'd put her mobile phone on silent and hadn't thought about it since. Now, she mentally groaned at the thought of freeing herself from their web of limbs to see who was annoying enough to call her this early in the morning. The sun wasn't even out yet.

When Lily gently tried to move her leg from between his, she felt his arms tighten around her. She bit her lip and wondered what to do. She didn't want to wake him up because he definitely deserved his beauty sleep after last night.

A blush crept up her cheeks. Last night had been something else, all right. She smiled against his chest and decided to let the phone buzz. She wouldn't leave this bed for all the money in the world.

"Morning," he whispered, and Lily couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

"I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Hm, no," he lied, and Lily grinned when he kissed the top of her head.

"Liar," she teased.

His strong arms pushed her up a little so they were now on eye-level, and he kissed the tip of her nose again. Lily hadn't expected to see such alertness in his eyes, but nothing about this man was predictable. James Potter had exceeded all her expectations, and she suspected that wasn't something that would easily change.

"Who are you calling a liar here?" he asked her with a lazy smirk.

Good God, Lily thought, as she marvelled at the light shadow on his jaw. Lily Evans was a sucker for stubble, and when she tried to reach out to follow the darkened trail of his beard, he captured her hand easily.

"Nuhuh," he said with laughing eyes. "Liars don't like to be touched."

"Since when?" Lily asked in a mock-outraged tone.

James laughed. "Since now."

"You don't play fair, you know."

He grabbed her other hand and held both of them behind her back, effectively trapping her in his embrace. "I don't need to play fair," his voice resembled a near-growl that made Lily's toes curl, "as long as I win."

Lily felt her heart speed up at the challenge in his voice. "Oh really?" But before she could tell him what she thought about his arrogant – and, yes, okay, _sexy_ – assumption, she got silenced when his lips claimed hers.

Lily tried to struggle out of his embrace and his kiss for the hell of it. She suspected she liked winning battles as much as the handsome devil currently trying to convince her she'd already lost the war. But when his tongue touched her lower lip, she stopped fighting it. There was no point to it, really. Kissing him was like winning the lottery.

When James ended the kiss and moved away from her torturous inch by torturous inch, he slowly pulled her lower lip along with his teeth. Lily groaned when he finally released her and saw, with some satisfaction, that he was as much affected by their kiss as she was.

"I'm going to take a shower," James murmured and kissed her quickly again, as if he too couldn't get enough.

"I'll be here," Lily teased, gesturing around the bed.

James groaned. "Don't."

Lily's smile distracted him again and, as if pulled by some unseen force, James leaned in for another kiss. Lily put her hands on his chest and gave a slight push. He immediately pulled back and stared at her. "Can you please take a shower now?" she asked him innocently. "You stink."

James laughed and threw a pillow her way before he jumped out of bed as elegant as a panther. He put on his boxers, took some fresh clothes from the pile on the desk and with a sassy wink left her bedroom.

Lily allowed herself to grin at the ceiling like a lovesick fool for a few minutes before she urged herself to at least pretend she wasn't head over heels for the man. She crawled out of bed in a manner she was sure was super elegant until she found James' shirt she'd tossed on the floor the previous night. She buttoned it up and grinned when she saw it reached her knees. She moved to her own bags, and it seemed impossible to her that she'd ever stop smiling.

Lily wanted to wear something cute today, which really wasn't that odd. Lily's dress style was a mixture of sophisticated and adorably cute, but today she'd aim a little higher. Today she wanted to look stunning. She wanted James to salivate at the very sight of her and she had just the dress to make that dream happen too.

"Oh, Lily," she mumbled to herself, "you're in over your head."

When she rummaged through her bag, on a quest for the mouth-watering dress, she found something else entirely. Something that gave her the biggest reality check since Marlene told her marrying Ryan Gosling wasn't happening. Ever.

Lily pulled the envelope she'd given James two days prior out of her bag and opened it. Yep, the money was still there.

She let go of the money as if it burned her and felt her heart drop. She walked to her nightstand in a zombielike state and tried not to panic. She needed to put everything in perspective, and the best way to do that was by running the night by Marlene.

She'd slept with her escort.

No, she'd shagged him. Several times.

Oh God, what had she done? Did he feel like he needed to return the money now that they'd slept together? But why? This was his job wasn't it? He must've put the money back before last night, because she hadn't noticed him leaving the bed at all.

What did the money mean? Had he noticed the chemistry between them as she had?

And why, of all the times for Lily's good judgement to fail her, did it have to happen now?

She grabbed her phone and planted her ass on the bed. Lily frowned when she saw she had four missed calls and sixteen texts from the best friend who would talk some sense into her. She quickly hit redial since she figured that would be faster than reading all of her text messages.

Marlene picked up at the first ring. "Lily!" She sounded relieved and afraid at the same time.

"I – yes? What's wrong?"

"What do you have a phone for? Anyway, it's good you called. I was about to leave for your house. You can't trust anything that git says, Lily!"

Lily blinked. "What git?"

"Oh gee," Marlene drawled in a frustrated and exhausted sounding drawl, "who did you have me look into? Casanova, of course! His name really is James Fleamont Potter, pet. He isn't an escort at all. He-"

Lily had already stopped listening, her hand tightened around her phone painfully. She'd gotten the reality check she'd asked for all right. Lily had shagged someone who she didn't know at all, someone who'd deceived her from the get-go if Marlene was right. She'd let herself be _used_.

In the back of her mind a nasty voice said something about being a hypocrite. Hadn't she been the one using James only forty seconds ago? "Oh bloody hell," she gasped out, her voice breaking on the last word.

"Lily?" Marlene asked carefully. "I'm getting in the car right now. I'll be there in a few hours."

"Marlene?" Lily whispered, and she tried desperately not to sound as if she was on the verge of tears.

"Yes?"

Lily bit her lip till it hurt. This was… "Nothing. Get here fast." She hung up the phone and stared at the Safari app for what felt like an eternity. Her head told her that she really shouldn't, but her heart demanded answers. She tapped on her screen, and her fingers flew across the keyboard. Soon she was staring at a picture of James. Google confirmed Marlene's accusations. He was indeed the only son of the aloof Mr. Potter, and Lily didn't think his salary as a detective was so bad he'd need to work as a sex worker on the side to make ends meet.

The longer she stared at his face eating grin, the angrier she became. She stood up so fast that the world spun around her. Lily didn't care though; she was a woman on a mission now.

Lily threw her phone back on the bed and looked around the room, till her eyes caught the smile pile of his neatly folded clothes on her desk. His bag was beside the desk chair. Without a care for the expensive fabric, Lily tossed his clothing into his stupid, fancy leather bag. She hoped they all wrinkled.

Her phone dinged, which she ignored. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She spotted the disregarded envelope on the floor. A few bills had fallen out, and she could feel herself whiten.

The door to her bedroom opened, and James bloody Potter entered. He had been smiling - no doubt about what an idiot she was, but the grin quickly faded when he saw the murderous look on her face.

"Lily?"

"I want you to leave." She threw his bag toward him, and they both watched it fall before his feet. He had his dirty clothing and toiletries in his arms. The heartbroken puppy eyes nearly made her believe that not everything had been an act. Nearly.

At least he was man enough not to pretend he didn't know what this was about.

He gently put his stuff into his bag and moved towards her when he was done.

Lily quickly took a few steps back. "Don't."

His eyes. Fuck, his eyes were undoing her. "Lily," he pleaded. James' hand was outstretched and even though now that she knew what a bellend he was, she wanted him to comfort her. She wanted to take his hand and allow James to pull her into his arms.

This went beyond pathetic.

"No," she bellowed. "Don't you bloody dare. Don't – Don't you dare touch me." Her heart wasn't beating erratically now, and the only reason she knew she was still alive was because it hurt. It hurt so much that it was torture to breathe. It was utter torment looking at James Potter. She'd thought that they'd bartered money, but the currency had been her soul. He'd taken hers, and she hadn't even noticed.

"Lily, please, it wasn't meant to get this far."

Oh, please, Lily thought. "And that's supposed to make it better somehow?"

He quickly shook his head, his wet, messy hair bouncing around his head. He went with a hand through it, worsening it even more. She didn't want to know he did that whenever he got nervous or excited, but she did and the knowledge would haunt her. "Frankly, I couldn't care less about what you have to say. I want you to leave."

James stood there with his shoulders hunched for a moment before he turned around and collected his bag. "I know this won't mean much to you, but I am sorry, Lily. And I want you to know that I care about you. So much."

Lily looked away from him and stared at the bed she was going to have to trash before she left for London. That thing just had to go.

"Last night was real for me, even if nothing else was."

Lily closed her eyes and felt a lonely tear trail down her cheek. It needn't fear, it would soon be joined by others. But just like Rizzo from Grease sang, crying in front of him was the worst thing she could possibly do.

When she opened her eyes, James had gone and had taken the little strength that kept her upright with him. She crumbled on the floor and cried with deep, heaving sobs. When her bedroom door opened a few moments later and her sister came in, she tried to control herself.

"Oh, Lily," Petunia said in an odd tone that was so unlike her sister that Lily broke down even further. Only one thought went through her mind when she felt Petunia's arms around her; she'd become one of those women she read about in magazines.

Lily had fallen for her escort.

* * *

James was back in Edinburgh, seated at a round table in a rowdy pub. It was Friday night, their weekly lads' night. Remus had managed to drag his arse away from Tonks for a few hours, something James usually would have taken advantage of. He rarely saw his friend anymore now that he was dating the girl who was quite a few years younger than him.

None of them minded the age gap between them since Tonks treated him well. She was great.

Thinking about Remus' girlfriend made Lily pop back into his head. She'd seemed so heartbroken when he left. It had been three days since Boxing Day, and James would never forgive himself for putting that look on her face.

The pub was alive with laughter and the ringing of beer glasses, but it might as well have been silent for James. He wasn't in a festive mood. He took another sip from his third ale that evening and considered drowning his sorrows with alcohol. He didn't need to go to work till after the weekend anyway. He'd have two whole days to drink himself into a stupor and the Sunday to deal with the hangover.

Sounded like a plan if he'd ever heard one.

James finished his beer and pounded on the table to draw the attention of his mates. "Another round?" he suggested.

Sirius started smirking, but Peter stared at his full glass.

"James, we just got ours," the latter drawled.

Sirius, who had been halfway through his pint, gave Peter a look. "You need to keep up, Petey."

"No, he doesn't," Remus intervened, his worried eyes on James.

He wasn't in the mood for a stern talking to. "Right then," James announced quickly, "two it is then." He left the table and hurried towards the bar. He waited for his drinks when his attention got snagged by a green scarf. It was a near match for Lily's eyes and-

No, he needed to stop this. He fucked up, and he needed to let it go. Even if he had enough nerve to look her up, she wouldn't want to see him anyway. The hurt in her voice had said as much.

He remembered the way he'd said goodbye to her parents, who'd seemed genuinely sad to see him go. James very much doubted they still thought of him that fondly now. James paid the barman and then made his way back to the table where the lads were arguing.

"What's going on?" James asked when he sat back down next to Sirius.

"Remus believes that Queen trumps Fall Out Boy." Peter spoke without looking away from the heated argument.

"Ah," James replied, not really interested in the whole thing since he was more of an Imagine Dragons man himself. He downed his next few beers in rapid succession and was blinking woozily an hour later. Hm. The buzz that came with drinking rapidly was kind of nice. Before Lily could sneak into his mind again, Remus waved a hand in front of his face.

"Prongs, maybe you need to slow down with the drinking, mate," Sirius shouted over the roar of the pub.

"Then again," James slurred, "maybe not."

"What was that?"

James opened his mouth to repeat what he'd just said, but changed his mind halfway through. Why bother? He knocked his head against the table a few times instead. Gently at first, then a little harder.

"Oh great," Remus said, "he's gone off the deep end."

"Mate, it's okay," Peter said loudly, "we all prefer Fall Out Boy."

A silence descended at their table for a moment before James broke it with the loudest and most high-pitched giggles. He'd later deny ever making the sound, of course, but right then he couldn't stop. He sat back and threw his head in his neck, all the while roaring with hysterical laughter. The idea that Peter thought he was upset over a stupid band discussion they had an hour ago was too much for him. As if he could give two rats' arses about music.

"Is this about Lily again?" Sirius asked slowly, worrisome eyes studying his face.

James stopped mid-laugh at the mention of her name.

"Who's Lily?"

Bloody hell. "Can we all stop saying her name?" he snarled.

"Woah," Peter muttered, and that it was audible was only due to the fact that he was sitting right next to James, "mood swing."

James narrowed his eyes at him and decided that he needed another pint. He got up the table, swayed on his feet for a few ticks, and then made his way to the bar. He made a small detour, since his drunk brain figured the bar was at the other end of the pub, but finally managed to claim a bar stool. "Another pint!" he yelled.

"No, James, I'm cutting you off."

James narrowed his eyes at the bald man and raised a finger. He remembered telling him off, then a moment of weightlessness, and that was it. He didn't remember doing anything else before his world went dark.

* * *

James woke up with a headache from hell on someone's couch. By the smell of it he'd say Peter's.

"Oh good, our little princess is awake," someone bellowed.

James groaned and buried his face under his arms in a futile attempt to escape his headache.

"How are you feeling?"

"Shite," James murmured back. "And can you lower your bloody voice?"

A soft laugh.

Time to face the music. James opened his eyes and slowly sat up. Remus shoved a glass of water and two painkillers in his hands, and James quickly took them. "What happened?" he croaked.

"Some tosser bumped into you, and you went down like a domino."

James looked up to see Remus barely withholding his laughter.

"Isn't funny," James mumbled.

"It kind of was," Remus admitted. "We thought we'd have to call an ambulance for sure, but apparently there was a doctor in the pub. Anyway, he assured us that you were just piss drunk. We knew you'd be fine in the morning when you started snoring on the floor, so we decided to take you home instead."

James made a face which caused Remus to chuckle again.

"Ah, how is our Sleeping Beauty doing?" Sirius asked when he entered the sparsely decorated living room. "Did Remus kiss you awake?"

It was Remus' turn to pull up his nose. "He should only be so lucky."

"What?" James asked lowly, rubbing his forehead all the while. "Are you saying that you wouldn't kiss me awake if I was cursed? Some mate you are."

"He'll be fine," Sirius said merrily.

Remus' shook his head and together both of them tried to convince James to join them in Peter's kitchen. Their host was making a hearty English breakfast, but the smell of sausages made James' stomach turn. When he finally sat down on an old, creaky chair and watched the others eat, he sent a prayer of thanks to whichever God was listening that he wasn't the vomiting-type.

Unfortunately for him, the lads hadn't forgotten what had sent him running for oblivion last night.

"I think you should go to her," Peter suddenly said when he put eggs and bacon on the table. The sausages and beans soon followed. "What have you got to lose?"

"Some of the dignity he has left?" Sirius said, coming to his aid as James knew he would. He pointed a finger to Sirius to show Peter that he agreed.

Peter shook his spatula at him and that movement in combination with the blue and red apron he was wearing was so ridiculous that James almost forgot about his headache. "All is fair in love and war, you know."

"Peter's right," Remus shrugged with a pile of food on his plate the size of Mount Everest. "You have nothing to lose, and it beats sitting on your arse whining about how sad your life is. You've made your bed, and you can either lie in it alone or convince Lily to join you."

"Kinky," Sirius mumbled around his sausage, which really was a visual James could have done without.

James didn't think he'd be received well if he went. He said as much to the group.

"Well, you'll never know if you don't go," Peter pointed out after he sat down with them, still wearing that ugly apron.

"I didn't know you were so wise in the mornings," Remus said, sounding a little surprised.

Peter shrugged.

"I hate to say it, Prongs," Sirius finally butted in, grease now covering his face, "but I think they're right. You said you liked this girl." No, he'd said he might _love_ that girl. "So go get her back."

Sirius made it all sound so simple.

"You're James Potter," Remus agreed, "you're a fucking catch, mate."

"Handsome," Peter offered.

Sirius nodded. "Funny."

"Loyal," Remus added.

"And undoubtedly a good shag," Sirius finished. "What's not to like?" The lads burst into laughter.

"Aw, lads," James said grabbing his chest dramatically, "I never knew you cared. That's adorable."

Sirius tossed some bread his way. "I'll give you adorable, you twat."

James chuckled and took a sip from the cup of tea Peter had placed in front of him. When had his mousy little friend turned out to be such a mother hen? Was he seeing someone? Ugh, it didn't matter. "I don't know though. What would I say to her? I'm sorry I'm an arse?"

"Well," Remus shrugged, "yes. It always works with Tonks."

They all turned to look at Remus for a moment, but James decided against asking about their relationship troubles. He might like Tonks a lot, but she was a little weird, too. He once caught her talking to a rubber duck while dying her hair pink. It wouldn't have been so weird if she hadn't been ranting to the duck about people calling her by her first name. Which was Nymphadora.

Yes, Tonks was an odd one.

"I never knew you were a quitter," Sirius said flippantly.

Please, that was too transparent. Even for Sirius Master-in-Subtlety Black.

"I get it," he said as he piled some more beans on his plate, "I wouldn't put myself on the line like that either. Especially if our relationship was nothing to write home about. I mean why risk everything if she couldn't care less, right?"

James frowned at him. There were several things he was certain of in life; Chelsea was the best football team in the UK, fish and chips were something you went to war for and the two days he'd spend with Lily had meant something to her. He'd meant something to her, or she wouldn't have felt so betrayed by him.

Sirius smiled at his facial expression and said solemnly, "There you go, lad. You can either decide to let her go, or you can put the poor damsel out of her distress."

James turned to Sirius and nodded somewhat abruptly. He groaned and laid his head on his arms. He wasn't going to rescue any damsels in distress with this hangover.


	8. Like Lovers Do

**Chapter 8: Like Lovers Do**

Lily thanked the barista that handed her her honey and almond hot chocolate drink. She felt like she still deserved some love in the form of chocolate. She hadn't been handling the last week well as Marlene was happy to remind her.

"You aren't handling this well," her best friend remarked with a worried expression on her lovely face. Marlene was rocking her winged eyeliner and leather jacket. Whenever Lily tried her hand at eyeliner that dramatic she looked deranged.

Lily cradled her cup to her chest to warm her heart. "There's nothing chocolate can't fix."

Marlene pursed her red lips. "If you say so, pet."

Lily was spared from any more disapproving looks when Marlene was called forward to collect her eggnog latte. Like she usual did, Lily looked over Marlene's shoulder to see if the Starbucks employee had finally managed to spell Marlene's name right. He hadn't.

"Marlynn? Who the bloody fuck's called Marlynn?" Marlene asked loudly, and Lily snickered.

Carrying their cups protectively out of the tiny Starbucks establishment, they made their way back to Oxford Street. Just as Lily was a firm believer in chocolate to heal her metaphysical sores, Marlene believed that shopping was the only therapy Lily needed.

"Have you heard from him?" Marlene asked some time later.

Lily froze for a second, her hands freezing on the expensive green cashmere jumper she'd been caressing like a lover. She then realised that things like the cashmere jumper and escorts were too expensive for the likes of her. She moved on to more affordable, black trousers.

"Lily?" Marlene prompted.

Lily's tone was clipped. "No."

Marlene seemed to hesitate for a second. "Muffin, you need to talk about this."

Lily felt the corners of her lips twitch at the new pet name, but she refused to smile. "No, I don't."

"It will make you feel better," Marlene goaded as she followed Lily from one rack to the next.

Lily spun on her heel with fire in her eyes, her voice barely above an angry hiss. Every temptation of smiling had gone out the window. "What will? Admitting that I've been a stupid, desperate cow? Maybe I should just admit to the whole shop that I fell in love with someone who saw me as nothing more than a joke? Why are you even defending him?"

"I'm not defending him. Good riddance, but this is eating you alive. You barely finished your hot chocolate, you haven't bought anything yet, and you almost ran out of the bookstore when we entered. I brought you all of my Downton Abbey DVDs and don't think I didn't notice that they were where I left them three days ago. None of your guilty pleasures are helping you, and I care far too much for you to leave you mellowing in your self-pity."

Lily sighed and shook her head. "I'm just not up to it, I guess."

"You knew the lad for three days. Three days! How much could you have possibly come to care for him in that short amount of time?"

Lily remembered him ambushing her at Starbucks and the way he'd teased her in her bedroom. She smiled a little at the panicked expression on his face when he nearly fell on the ice rink, and she shivered when she remembered his growls of hunger. Growls that started deep within his chest as if he'd devour her whole.

Melancholy quickly chased the grin off her face, and Marlene snapped her fingers as if she'd just found the best way to help her friend get over her broken heart. "We are going clubbing."

Lily wasn't fooled for a moment. Marlene had probably been planning a night out for days now. "No, we're not."

"Yes, we are."

"No, Marlene, honestly-"

Marlene held up her hand. "Talk to the hand, Lily, 'cause I don't want to hear it."

A small snicker escaped Lily. "What? Are we ten again?"

"I'll have you know that I'm like Peter Pan. Mentally, I never grew older than twelve."

Lily was full on laughing now, and the tender look on Marlene's face made her feel a smidgen better. Marlene threw her arm around Lily's shoulders and pulled her close. "Lily, my darling pet, love of my soul, my sister from another mister, we're letting down our hair tonight."

Lily grinned at her friend. "Your hair's always down."

Marlene winked. "I don't do stress, darling, it distracts me from life."

"Everything distracts you," Lily pointed out.

Marlene poked her in her side before she pushed Lily gently away and clapped her hands. "We need outfits, makeup and a massage to loosen you up a little."

Lily started protesting, but Marlene put her hand up again in front of Lily's face.

"Talk to the hand, darling," she repeated.

Lily raised an eyebrow when Marlene left her hand up in the air as if waiting for a weird high five with Lily's face.

"Go on, give it some love," she coaxed Lily. "My hand deserves a compliment."

Lily pushed Marlene's hand away. "Sometimes I worry about your mental health."

Marlene laughed and tucked her hand back in her jeans pocket. "At least you won't be alone in the loony bin."

Lily grabbed the first thing she spotted, which happened to be some ugly brown socks that were way too expensive for something you hid in your shoes all day, and threw it at Marlene's head. Marlene ducked, and the socks landed at the feet of a furious shop attendant.

* * *

Three hours later, Marlene and Lily found themselves under the gentle care of a makeup artist. They'd just been pampered by a masseuse with golden hands, who'd written her number on Marlene's wrist with a saucy wink.

"I'm Merlin," Marlene said as Lily's face was being coated in a sating layer of foundation. "Everyone wants a taste of my magic."

Lily roared with laughter when the artist went to change brushes. "What you are is arrogant."

"Self-knowledge isn't the same as arrogance," Marlene pointed out.

The makeup artist, whose name was Daniella or Dani for short, chuckled at that.

"Even Dani agrees with me," Lily's friend said with a gleeful smile.

"I think Dani's laughing at you, Marly, not with you," Lily said with her eyes closed as she enjoyed the featherlight touch of the brush on her skin.

Marlene was flippant. "If that's what you need to tell yourself to sleep better at night, pet."

Lily grinned but stopped when Dani chastised her. She listened to Marlene's plans for them tonight and wondered what she'd done in a past life to deserve a friend like her. Marlene had stopped by Lily's apartment every day after work for a week with food for the soul; chocolate, ice cream and Downton Abbey. Together they'd cursed the day Lily came across that phone number, and they'd screamed to angry girl music together until Lily's neighbour came knocking.

The day Marlene decided to smash Lily's sand castle on the playground had been the luckiest day of her life, and Lily was grateful for every day since. They'd remade the Pink Ladies in their own image and together they'd ruled the school.

"Whatever did I do to deserve you, Marlene?"

"I don't know…" They fell into a companionable silence, before Marlene snapped her fingers again in that typical manner she had. "If I'm Merlin, does that make you Morgana or Mordred?"

"I'm Arthur, thank you very much," Lily said promptly without thinking about it.

"Aw, bae," Marlene said dramatically. "I didn't know you were in love with me."

Lily grinned as Dani busied herself with Lily's eyes. "You need to stop re-watching that show."

"I can't help it," Marlene muttered disgruntledly, "it's taken over my soul."

Lily remembered the Christmas Eve several years ago that Marlene had called her in near hysterics because of the way BBC had decided to end the series. "He has to wait for centuries now," Marlene had wailed, "for his soulmate to come back. King Arthur is the king England deserves but doesn't yet need." When Lily had pointed out that Marlene was confusing Arthur with Batman, she'd only bawled harder.

It was a good thing that Marlene was just as obsessed with TV shows as Lily was, maybe even more so, which made Lily feel a little less like an obsessed fangirl.

When Dani was finished with her, Lily stared at the girl in the mirror. Her hair was done in a sophisticated bun hugged tight by a braid. Two strands of curls framed her face and Dani had done her makeup just so that her freckles were hidden from sight. Her eyes were smoky and alluring, and her red lips finished her femme fatale look.

Marlene whistled loudly. "Holy cow, gurl," she said in a bad American drawl. "You're smokin'."

For the first time in days Lily smiled at her reflection, and her eyes were caught by Marlene, who winked back at her. Maybe Marlene had been right, this was exactly what she needed.

* * *

James' hands were clammy when he arrived in the hotel suite with two bedrooms they'd booked. They had decided to celebrate New Year's in London this year, which was only two more days away. Sirius plopped down on the sofa without a care in the world and left his bags by the door. He looked like a king in this lavish setting, and James didn't doubt for a second that his best friend knew it, too.

"So where is this girl of yours?" Sirius asked as he flipped through channels on the telly.

James' hand went through his hair. "I don't know," he mumbled. "The girl said to wait for a text."

Sirius pulled a face. "And we trust her because?"

"Because," James drawled, "I don't know where Lily lives, and she's her best friend."

"We are detectives, you know," Sirius pointed out in a tone that said he found James mentally deficient. "You could always look her up."

James pulled a face. He'd never abuse his resources like that, besides he never wanted to betray her trust again. If Lily wanted him to know where she lived, she'd tell him. He didn't want to know otherwise, and the fact that her best friend had invited him to a club without her knowing didn't sit well with him either. He didn't want her to think he was stalking her or something.

Maybe he was overthinking this. If her own best friend invited him, then surely she must want to see him, right?

Ugh, this was doing his head in. "Want to go for a bite?" he asked Sirius instead.

His soddy excuse for a best friend didn't answer as he eyed the telly with an odd expression on his face. James followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow in question when he saw that Sirius was watching a documentary on giving birth.

"Padfoot," James shouted unnecessarily loud.

Sirius' head swivelled towards him. "Yeah, mate?"

"Are you pregnant?"

The cheeky grin on Sirius' face told more than James cared to know. "Want to go for a bite?" he therefore repeated his previous question.

"Sure," Sirius said and with a last lingering look on the screen, turned off the telly and got up from the sofa. "What are you in the mood for?"

They thought for a second, before they answered the question in unison with a loud, resounding "pizza".

* * *

The club was filled with pulsing bodies, dancing to the beat when Sirius and James arrived. It was a DJ night at Cargo's, and James shared a grin with Sirius. They moved to the bar first, where they downed a beer before a gorgeous brunette caught Sirius' eye.

James waved him off since he was too distracted to concentrate on Sirius anyway. He'd come here for one reason and one reason only; he needed to find Lily. When he thought he spotted a redhead, he pushed his way to the crowd, but when James reached the girl it wasn't her.

The lights flashed colours all around him which didn't make his task any easier. His hand shot back to his hair, messing it up as James' eyes darted across the room. It was hard to see anything through this mass of people, and after a few more tries he finally found the redhead that had staked her claim on his heart. She was dancing on the dancefloor with the girl he'd skyped with two days ago. Her back was to him, but it was her. He was sure of it.

James had no idea how he'd managed to confuse her before. When it came to Lily Evans there simply was no comparison. No other girl came close to the kind of charisma she exuded. She had her hair done up in a complicated looking bun, and she was wearing a short, black dress that made his heart miss a beat. He pushed his way to the crowd and when his eyes caught those of her best friend she flashed him a grin.

He started dancing against Lily and stopped as soon as she froze. She turned around quickly with a scowl on her face until she saw him. The scowl disappeared, and the lost, hesitant expression that replaced it made James wish he'd drunk something stronger than beer.

"Lily," he breathed, and as if her name on his lips had woken her from a spell, Lily jerked into motion.

She turned around and ran past Marlene, pushing people out of her way as she tried to make a movie-worthy exit. James caught up to her outside the club and grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Let go of me," she warned dangerously.

James did as she asked and waited for her to look at him. As soon as their eyes caught, James started talking. He told her about how his best friend had answered her phone call while he was in the shower. He told her how he'd gone along with the prank, but how lost for breath he'd been when he saw her that first time. How lucky he was to have spent so much time with her and how he'd never planned on letting it get as far as it had. "I had never dreamed that you would feel the same way, Lily. I wasn't thinking that night." He saw her swallow. "But I want you to know that I wouldn't trade the time we spent together for anything in the world.

"I was an arsehole, and I ruined it, I know that. But I couldn't stand the fact that you thought you were nothing to me. I don't know how or when it happened, but somewhere along the way I started falling for you. And I think…" He hesitated. He had practiced this speech on Sirius for hours until the lad had been ready to drown him in the bathtub, but somehow he wasn't prepared to say what he had to say next. "I think I would like to know where this leads. Maybe there could be more between us, and I sincerely hope that I haven't ruined us before we got started."

Lily's expression was one of the best poker faces he had yet seen, and he played poker with Remus which said a lot.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry. I was so wrong, Lily, and I should never have done what I did. You deserve so much better than me." She shook her head, but he ploughed on. "No, you do. You deserve the kind of person little girls dream about. Prince Charming. I'm not him, and I will never be perfect." He gently took one of her hands in both of his and was beyond relieved when she allowed it. "But I will never stop trying to be the person you deserve to be with. I know I can't give you everything, but I hope that having me will be enough."

She gingerly pulled her hand from between his and stared at him. Her green eyes were unfathomable depths that sucked him in, and he swore he could see straight to her soul. "James," she sighed. "You should have told me who you were."

James swallowed, but refused to look away. If this was it for them then he wanted to witness every moment. He needed to know that there was nothing he could have done or said – short of begging, although he was starting to think he wouldn't be too proud to try that either – to save what they had blossoming between them. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"I know you are," Lily said, exhaling loudly. The silence between them was torture, and James deflated like a balloon. "I have a question for you, and I would like for you to answer it honestly. Regardless whether it might hurt my emotions or not."

James nodded encouragingly. She fell silent again, however, and he gently prodded, "What's your question?"

He saw Lily gather her courage as she stared into his eyes, seemingly unafraid. "Would you do it again? If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, would you do it again?"

James hesitated, unsure how to answer her question. In the end he decided to be honest as she'd asked. "Yes," he whispered. "I would, because although the way I went about it was wrong, it brought me to you. Without this fiasco I would never have met you. We would never have spent those days together, and although it sometimes hurts to think about the time we had, I wouldn't change it."

Lily took a deep breath and stared at him, seemingly looking for something in his expression. "James?" she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.

His eyes met hers.

"Good answer," she breathed, before she pulled on his shirt and kissed him. James pushed her against the wall and answered every stroke with one of his until he felt her soften in his embrace. He nibbled on her lip and smiled as his face moved to the crook of her neck. "Lily," he murmured against her skin.

She was wearing a sweet perfume, and he made a mental note to buy her more of it in the future. One of her hands lay right above his heart, and James couldn't help but wonder if she could feel its erratic beat. He made a trail of kisses from the sweet spot behind her ear to her collar bone and then made his way back up.

When he pulled back a little to study her, she smiled at him. "Don't think we're not going to talk about this," she said. "You're not off the hook yet, mister."

James grinned like only lovesick fools could. "That's okay," he said with sudden divine inspiration, "As long as I've got you hooked, I'm good with it."

Lily rolled her eyes and her expression got serious as she pulled herself free. She took two, three steps away from him. "Cheesy," she reprimanded him teasingly.

James grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him. She came willingly, giggling all the while. "I never said I was smooth," he pointed out, elated that she was willing to give them one more chance.

Lily threw her head back and laughed. "Looks like you chose the wrong profession."

"Nah," James murmured looking into her eyes until they both softened and lit with interest, "it brought me to you, didn't it?"

Lily's eyes were on his lips and James took it upon himself to bridge the distance and claim her mouth with his own.


	9. Epilogue

_Happy belated Valentine's Day!_

_This is it! This is the end of TCD. I want to thank all of you for your kudos, bookmarks and kind words. They really meant the world to me._

_I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it._

_After this epilogue I'll upload the playlist I made for this fic. I'm actually quite fond of it, and I want to share it with you._

_All my love,_

_Kelly_

* * *

**Epilogue**

**Valentine's Day – one year and forty-seven days later**

Lily Evans stood in front of her mirror with a hand on her belly. She was starting to show which was to be expected. Last Halloween had been a night to remember, and the result was the little guy or girl growing in her womb right now.

Lily and James had decided not to ask for the gender, but Lily was sure that it was going to be a boy. She smiled faintly as she eyed the small bump under her shirt. It looked like she'd overeaten and was carrying a food baby instead of James'. She undressed and grabbed the purple tunic she wanted to try on.

Lily didn't know why she was so convinced that it was going to be a boy. Maybe it was a mother's instinct or maybe it was just wishful thinking. Not that she wouldn't be happy with a girl either, not at all. They'd started decorating the baby's bedroom as soon as they'd moved in together two weeks ago.

It seemed like a weird thing to say, but thanks to James' crazy friends it felt like she'd lived there for ages instead of a fortnight. The men had taken it upon themselves to give the baby a room other kids could only dream about. Until they were finished, Lily had been banned from it, too. It would 'mess with their creative vibe' if she stepped over the 'genius threshold', or so Sirius had told her the last time she'd tried to come in with refreshments.

Lily grinned when she remembered how she'd given him a good talking to the first time they met.

"Hello? Are you quite finished, pet?"

Lily didn't answer as she eyed the tunic. It was a bit too large for her now, but it should fit her perfectly in a month. She'd chosen a dark purple shade that complimented her complexion and the fabric felt as soft as cotton pads.

"Lily? If you don't answer me right this second, I'm coming in."

Lily rolled her eyes good-humouredly at her friend and pushed the curtain open.

"Ah good," Marlene said mischievously. "I was starting to think it didn't fit or something."

Lily chose to ignore the jab. "Well? What do you think?"

Marlene eyed her for a second. "I love the colour on you, but isn't it a little… baggy?"

"I am going to grow larger," Lily pointed out, "and it does hide the bump."

"That's because I wouldn't be able to find your body with a satellite in that monster, pet."

Lily stuck out her tongue.

Marlene made cutting motions with her hands. "But I like it." Decision made, Lily went back inside the dressing room and quickly changed back into her shirt. She would also buy a few other tops that would fit her better. Some of her tunics and shirts were already on the small side now, and it wasn't like that was going to change.

She was due this summer, and Lily was both excited and terrified, which perfectly described her pregnancy.

An hour or so later, Marlene dropped her off at the house just outside of London she now shared with James. "Are you sure you'll be all right? Do you want me to talk to the Minions?"

Lily had taken Valentine's Day off to celebrate with James. She thought after all her hard work and the award they'd recently gotten to acknowledge them as the best event bureau in Britain, she kind of deserved a day off.

James and Sirius had both quit their jobs and moved to London ten months ago. They'd claimed that it was far easier to get their private eye business off the ground in the capital of England than in Edinburg. Lily, selfishly, hadn't complained.

She looked at the wide blue door as she answered Marlene. "No. The girls have got it under control." She'd left instructions to call her if anything wasn't going according to plan. Lily had also pointed out that she counted on them not to need her today. They only had one event today; team building for singles, and Lily didn't really expect any problems.

Marlene winked. "All right then, love. Off you go."

Lily leaned in to kiss Marlene's cheek. "We'll talk tomorrow, right?"

"Of course. I want to know all the details about this surprise your man got planned for you."

Lily grinned. Marlene wasn't the only one curious about that. "You got it." She got out of the car and was almost at the front door when Marlene called out to her. Lily turned around and saw that Marlene had let the window down.

"Being pregnant suits you, pet. You're glowing."

Lily laughed and blew her friend a kiss when she sped off. She got her keys out of her bag and went inside. They had a small hallway, decorated with pictures of James and Lily with or without their friends. The hilarious and adorable photos weren't what got her attention though.

There was a trail of lily petals leading from the kitchen and up the stairs. "James, you cheeseball," she called out delightedly, but no answer came hollering back to her. She shrugged out of her coat and decided to follow the trail to the kitchen first.

He'd started his path of lilies in their living room, and not as she'd first thought in their kitchen. She found a letter and a present on their dining table, and she curiously opened the letter.

_"Dear Lily,_

_once upon a time there was a boy. This boy, though charming and handsome, made a grave mistake. He pretended to be someone he wasn't to win a girl's heart. As soon as the boy laid eyes on the girl, he knew that he was in trouble. This girl was dangerous. Not because he feared her, but because this girl would be able to ruin him if she wished. This wild, fierce girl with flames for hair and emerald diamonds for eyes could be the end of him._

_When the boy's deceit came to light, she nearly was. But the boy decided to man up and fight for the girl. She deserved to be fought for, after all, and the boy had something to make up for. The girl, whose good heart was hugged by a beautiful soul, decided to forgive the boy._

_This boy is not a prince, and he has no white horse. But the girl is a princess to him, and she deserves to live happily ever after._

_This is our story, and I could tell you how it continues. Instead, I'd like for you to follow the path._

_Come find your happy end, love._

_James"_

Lily bit her lip to keep herself from smiling too broadly. God, how she loved that man. She carefully folded the letter and opened her present next. Lily squealed at what she found within the packaging. It was the hair chain she'd been lusting over at the Christmas market in Cokeworth last year.

The ornament that resembled a silver, twisted rope was just as pretty as she remembered. She caressed it gently and decided to put it in her hair. She used the mirror above their dresser to put it in. It was gorgeous, and Marlene was right; she was glowing. He must have either hunted the merchant down or bought it the year before. But why wait so long to give it to her?

She eagerly started following the petals again. At the top of the stairs she found that James had left another present for her. This time it was a bracelet from Pandora with seven charms.

She eyed the bracelet while a warm feeling in her belly. Her fingers traced each charm. There was a takeaway cup, a snow flake, a taxi, a pair of ice skates, the letter L and J and a heart. The bracelet told their story, and she couldn't love it anymore if she tried.

Lily attached it to her wrist and continued following the petals. It led to the baby's room. She gently pushed open the door and her chin would have hit the floor if she were in a cartoon. The lads had really outdone themselves. The ceiling of the room resembled a blue sky with fluffy clouds while the walls were painted with rolling hills and with a castle and woods in the distance.

In the middle of the room stood James, dressed as handsomely as always, with a sheepish look on his face.

Lily went to him and threw her harms around him, showering his face with kisses. "God, I love you," she murmured between kisses.

James chuckled and hugged her close for a tick or two before he gently pushed her away. "I take it you like it?" he says, his eyes lighting up when he spotted her wearing his presents.

"I love it," she said, and she felt like the luckiest girl in the world. She saw his hand shooting to his hair and only then realised that something was wrong. There seemed to be something off about him, and it took Lily a while to pinpoint it.

James was nervous.

He cleared his throat. "Lily, I don't know how to say this without sounding like a total 'cheeseball'." Lily snickered. "Thanks for that by the way."

"You're welcome," she teased and fingered her new bracelet. She couldn't wait to brag about it to Marlene.

"Right," James murmured and inhaled deeply. "Right," he said again as he exhaled.

Lily waited for a second as he seemed at a loss for words. Truly intrigued now, she cocked her head to the side, her eyes on his.

All of a sudden, he knelt down on one knee and his hand got something out of his pocket.

Lily's brain didn't seem to catch up to the situation at hand until after he said something. She blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

A small grin broke through on his face. "I said that I love you. I adore you, Lily."

Oh, hot chocolate fudge. Was he really – He was, wasn't he?

Her eyes travelled from the ring in his hand to his face and back again.

"Will you marry me, Lily?"

She didn't know how long she was frozen like that, glancing from the ring to the love of her life and back again. But when she finally woke from her daze, she noticed that James was starting to look a little worried. "I would love to," she finally said, happy tears pooling in her eyes.

James Potter oozed happiness as he put the ring on Lily's finger and then swept her off her feet. He kissed her as she put her legs around his waist. She was vaguely aware that they were moving, but she was enjoying kissing her fiancé far too much to care. When she felt the soft touch of their mattress under her, she smiled against his lips. Their foreheads touched after the kiss ended and they gazed at each other.

"Hi," she whispered.

James kissed the tip of her nose. "Hi."

Princesses had been cheated at the end of their fairy tales, because this moment felt far more magical than all of their happy endings put together.


	10. Soundtrack

### Soundtrack

The Beatles .................................................................................................................................... Here Comes The Sun

Rachel Platten................................................................................................................................. Fight Song

Meredith Brooks.............................................................................................................................. B*tch

The Wanted..................................................................................................................................... She Walks Like Rihanna

Carly Rae Jepsen.............................................................................................................................. This Kiss

Walk The Moon................................................................................................................................ Shut Up and Dance

Raign .............................................................................................................................................. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Ellie Goulding................................................................................................................................... Love Me Like You Do (Abbey Road)

Paramore......................................................................................................................................... That’s What You Get

Fall Out Boy..................................................................................................................................... Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Jasmine Thompson........................................................................................................................... Like I’m Gonna Lose You (Cover)

Alexandra Burke............................................................................................................................... Hallelujah (Cover)

The Wanted...................................................................................................................................... Glad You Came


End file.
